Motorsports and Romance: Gunpowder Arc
by SS Killroze
Summary: Romance, jealously and high octane fuel; Nitromethane is in the air ! The Sonic crew are in equestria with the mane6 to compete in the Pony Derby in Fillidelphia (old summary). Sonic chases down a gangster who owns a firearm- that doesnt sound unusual but... Equestria hasnt had a firearm a thousand years. What is this gangster and his gang up to? What has Sonic gotten himself into!
1. Chapter 1

A large, matte black chopper with stunning chrome accents rolled up to an earthshaking, rumbling stop. Its deep, pulsating red glow that peeped out of the engine died down as the rider took the key out of the ignition.

A heavy-duty, black military boot stepped off the bike and propped the kickstand up. The figure took out his phone from his black denim jeans and checked the time: 11:34 pm.

The bright full moon glowed directly over his head, lighting up his handsome features: he was a tall, powerful hedgehog; he had black quills that stood up at the ends with a red highlight that embellished each one. He had on a black long sleeve dress shirt that was rolled up to the elbows with a red trim along the cuffs and black gloves on that hid his hands.

He was standing in a wide, mossy clearing that bordered a majestic, shallow lake that was fed by a river just above it. The running water quietly trickled down the stepped rocks into the small, shimmering lake.

Lush, green trees and undergrowth bordered the outside rim of the beautiful clearing besides a lone, rebellious tree that grew from the edge of the lake, casting a few of its long, drooping branches into the lakes' silvery surface.

Shadow loved being alone like this, not a soul to interrupt his peace as he soaked in the hideous beauty of nature. He leaned against his matte chopper and began to think about things that ran through his mind... "_Maria-_," of course, ran through his mind daily. "_Sonic, oh yes, he will have to get him back for what he did earlier"_. Shadow shifted his arms and looked even more thoughtful as he remembered one girl in general that spiked much interest in him. "_That pony named Starlight Sparks or something; she sure is a smart girl, reminded him of Maria; always looking to the stars, holding admiration of the heavens above_. That nuisance Pin-."

His train of thought was interrupted when his sensitive ears heard another sound of another vehicle's engine rumbling, approaching the clearing where the lake was located, he growled to himself in annoyance and look towards the direction of the sound.

Within a second an array of bright Xenon lights emitted from the source of the sound as the vehicle got closer. Shadow put his hands up to shield his eyes and wondered who had the audacity to disturb his peace.

The lights shut off as well as the engine and a Bright Bubblegum Pink; lifted Jeep Wrangler was visibly seen along with a pretty girl with large, goofy hair that popped out the top of the roofless jeep. She smiled at the hedgehog gleefully.

"Having Fun Shaddy?!"

Shadow ignored the pink haired girl as he flouted the pet name she enjoyed calling him. He turned his head and got ready to mount back on his bike.

"Wait! Don't leave me again! You always do this! Ever since you and your friends crashed here a few weeks ago all you've done is ignore my presence!" The girl yelled at him, clearly distraught.

"Pinkie pie-" Shadow started, his teeth gritted together, annoyed by her whining. But he knew she was right.

Shadow huffed in annoyance, walking away from his bike towards the glistening lake and leaned back on a moss covered tree bordering the lake. He have had been ignoring the party girl ever since he have got there, why? Why would he ignore someone who has always been so nice to him, offered him extra treats when no one was around, even asking him if she could follow him on his nature walks. Such kindness and friendship, it hangs in the air over this country like a thick, choking smoke. He doesn't need friends; he already has to deal with that Sonic, that lumbering idiot and that geek.

Shadow kept his frown and sat down in the soft, springy moss and laid his head upon the trunk of the tree relishing the quiet beauty that surrounded him; pushing Pinkie out of his mind. Pinkie Pie, hair now deflated, gotten out of her Jeep and made her way slowly to the lone tree Shadow was resting against. She sat down quietly opposite of him; there was only the tranquil sounds of trickling water and Pinkie's shoes scuffling against the moss.

There was silence between them both; even Pinkie Pie didn't know what to say to break this feeling of awkwardness and tension. Her happy mood was gone, replaced by anxiety only wishing Shadow would PLEASE explain himself, wishing she'd knew why gaining his friendship was so crucial to him, wishing why she knew why such a guy of great stature as him frowned and scowled at everything. Wishing why- no... It couldn't be. She blushed and awkwardly looked down as she thought some more.

Shadow just sat there without an expression on his face now, he looked down to the right and saw her small delicate hand lying out to the side of the tree. For a second a tiny urge to comfort her grab her hand and hold it to comfort her lingered in his mind. He drew out his hand slowly, unsure whether to do it or not and he opened his mouth slightly as he thought about what to say. His ears perked up quickly when her hand balled up in a fist and she called his name. "Shadow, could you please be my-" she stopped abruptly, her huge blue eyes staring in surprise at nothing in particular as Shadow rested his gloved hand on hers. "Okay.", was all the black hedgehog said as he stood up and slowly walked to his bike and put the key in the ignition. The bike fired up with a low thunderous roar and he bellowed out of the clearing.

Pinkamena sat there looking in the direction he disappeared to and held the hand he momentarily touched.

"Shadow..."

The Sonic team and the rest of the mane6 (minus Twilight Sparkle) was hanging out at Sugar Cube Corner relaxing on the Cake's new Patio with the Patio lights lighting up their vision. Sonic, Rainbow Dash, Amy, was working on their bikes while Knuckles and Tails; the prior who was tuning up his high power, monster of a truck: Modded Dodge Ram 3500 and the latter who was timing his custom made hot-rod for tomorrow's Pony Derby, a Equestria renowned drag race and Motorcycle hangout in Fillidelphia.

Sonic aka the Blue Blur sat cockily on his custom made Drag bike: a heavily modified Ducati Desmosedici RR with a four foot rear extension and wheelie bar. A 340 horsepower engine that that screamed with power when it was being revved. The bike was made complete with a sick, blue graphic paint-job that make it look like the paint on the bike was peeling by how fast he is going. The bike sat low to the ground and produced a beautiful blue glow when turned on, the blue light that emits from inside the engine compartment and for under-glow flashes at a rate depending on how fast he was going.

The Blue hedgehog boasts that it is the fastest bike in the whole nation, and quite frankly... he is right. Nothing comes (without using magic) close to his bike, besides Shadow's Custom chopper; the Demented Bull, his bike sounds and looks as the name suggests.

Rainbow was hovering over her bike with a wrench in her hand checking her bike over after her tune-up. She swears she will beat Sonic one day. Before him and his buddies crashed landed here (by a freak accident of Tails blasting everything in his garage, including his friends, to Equestria) her bike, Spectra, was the fastest bike in the land of Equestria. Her bike is a custom made street bike with no extension but a harsh 320 horsepower engine and a breakneck acceleration rate (0-60) in 1.9 seconds. Spectra had one large wheel in the back and a smaller wheel in the front. The bike also blazoned a blurred image of her sonic Rainboom down the side of it she hopes one day to perform a Sonic Rainboom with her precious bike.

"Alright Spiky Head, tomorrow I'm going to leave you dust for sure!" Rainbow dash exclaimed brushing her greasy hands on her black tank tied off to show her pierced belly button. For bottoms she had on some baggy jogging pants from which her beautiful rainbow colored tail flowed behind her. Dashie's hair was in untidy bangs in front of her face and tied back in a low ponytail, her ears are pierced multiple times with chrome industrial in the left and 2 small studs, and an upper cuff on right with one small stud.

Rarity was lounging back in a comfortable chair while sipping some tea and browsing on Tails' smartphone learning about Earth from which the Sonic team beamed from. She was using most of her time browsing the different fashion trends, most of which being French Couture, but she became highly interested in Japanese fashion, African hair styles, and modern English fashion.

Fluttershy was sitting adjacent to her looking in awe at the powerful machines in front of her until she noticed a pink head not present.

"Umm, has anyone seen Pinkie Pie?" She murmured.

"Hmmm?" Rarity looked up from the phone putting her gorgeous, blue eyes on her.

"Pinkie pie, did she say where she went?" Flutters reiterated quietly but just loud enough for Rarity to hear.

"Pinkie said she was going to see-OH!" A loud droning sound roared through the air and a dim red glow and small plume of dark smoke emitted from down the street as Shadow's Demented Bull roared down the street towards them, he bypassed the mane6 and sonic team and bellowed down the road towards Twilight's house.

"I wonder what that was about" Fluttershy peeped in slight curiosity.

A few minutes later a bright light emerged from down the street where Sonic co. and the mane6 (well 4) saw Shadow appear from. The lights got closer until the vehicle came to a halt in front of them. The lights shut off and Pinkie pie jumped out of her Bright Pink Jeep and walked slowly towards her friends beaming with delight. Her equine friends, excluding Twilight walked up to their friend asking where she'd been; Sonic team just looked on quietly.

"What wrong Pinkie, your eyes look red, have you been crying!?" Dashie asked her fully concerned for her pink friend. Pinkie shook her head ignoring the question and just smiled bigger, and in a soft voice followed by another tear escaping from her pretty blue eyes, "…I made a new friend." She smiled and laughed to herself, in her emotions.

Shadow the Hedgehog sat on Twilight's balcony which had a beautiful view of the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy. His crimson eyes soaked in the sight, not blinking and mouth slightly agape. Ever since they've arrived Shadow spent the hours of a night just watching the galaxies as they beamed its beautiful waves into his retinas; no mere Earth dweller could ever dream of having such a stupendous sight as the one he is having now, and it amazed him.

His ears twitched as he heard a sound behind him and he turned his head slightly to the side to see the Purple haired Twilight Sparkle walk up behind him in a nude nightgown. (Nude as in the type of fabric) "You really enjoy these stars do you?" She asked rhetorically, looking down at him as he stared into the sky. "_Such a handsome hedgehog, so intent on astronomy, so, so smart_" she thought to herself. (Referring to the time when he basically recited the books of Laws of physics and space and time when they were walking alone in the Moonlit Moor located in the lands just behind sweet apple acres. A short on this will appear later ;)

"Yes, the stars are far superior to the worlds I lived in; so peaceful, without corruption, without hate, without sickness and death." He replied, not facing Twilight, but eyes glued on the constellations above.

"Maria..."

**6 HOURS LATER**

"LET'S GO ALREADY! Damn, princess." Knuckles hollered over the sound of his truck rumbling in idle outside of Rarity's boutique. The Mane6 and Sonic Team have been awoken in the middle of their sleep so they could make it to Fillidelphia in ample time to register for the races.

Knuckles' modded Ram can hold up to 12 passengers in a limousine style seating arrangement. He also had a huge car hauler attached to his truck so he can haul their vehicles to the Race (Sonic's, Dash's, shadow's, Amy's bikes .Tails's Dragster, Pinkie's SUV, Rarity's cruiser.).

The Fashionista finally came out of her house pampered up like she was about to meet some up for a bootycall; as what Knuckles calls it. Applejack sat up front with Knuckles wearing a white tube top, exposing a lot of cleavage like usual. She also and sported a pair of daisy dukes and cowboy boots, and her favorite hat in the whole world; her worn, brown Stetson.

Rarity walked past the driver side door to the rear passenger door and when she did Knuckles looked back to admire her "assets", a " me gusta" look on his face. She entered the cab and Knuckles returned his head back forward and looked to his side quickly to see Applejack looking at him with a frustrated glare.

"What?" His face lost his kooky smile and he frowned.

"Nuthin'..." The cowgirl huffed as she looked out the window at nothing in particular.

"CAN WE JUST GO ALREADY?!" Rainbow dash called from the back, eager to get going, 300 hundred miles to Fillidelphia over a long and tedious dirt road isn't going to be fun.

Knuckles revved his Quadruple Turbo Double Diesel engine making it roar and lean to the side due to the massive amount of torque and his stacks puffed out a plume of smoke and fire before he bored down on the throttle and blasted off down the road.

**[Hour and a half later]**

The quiet, muffled rumble of the engine was heard from inside the cab as its passengers, excluding Rainbow Dash, were sound asleep. Sonic was fast asleep sitting up between Rainbow Dash and Amy, the latter whom had her head resting against his shoulder. Dash was reading a new installment of Daring Do. She looked up from her book and looked up at Sonic's sleeping face, she blushed and smiled. He looked so handsome, stupid hedgehog...

She looked around the cab to double check that everyone was asleep. When she confirmed that they were she leaned her head slowly towards the blue hedgehog, about to confirm those deeply hidden feelings she had about the speed demon. The Rainbow haired girl puckered her lips and closed her eyes; in a few milliseconds her lips will be touching his...

A sudden ruffling sound of someone stirring stopped her dead in her tracks; the source of the ruffling sound outstretched a pink hand and pulled Sonic's head away from Rainbow Dash's lips. Rd cautiously looked over Sonic and saw the still sleeping Amy Rose muttering in her sleep and securing her self-proclaimed boyfriend in her fan girl embrace. Dashie huffed in frustration and turned to try to get some sleep, though Sonic stayed in her mind.

After almost 2 more hours of constant driving they arrived to a massive coliseum that holds no other than, the Equestria Pony Derby. Knuckles drove through the Entrance of the herculean gates as the mane6 and Sonic team plus Shadow stuck their head out of the windows and sunroofs to get a better look at everything.

The Pony Derby is a Drag Strip, Race track, Baja, rock climbing and low rider and Truck contests all rolled into one huge event. There were ponies (anthros of course) of all species and colors arriving in trucks hauling their prized vehicles or arriving in their prized vehicles. Knuckles maneuvered his Ram towards the registration tent to get Sonic, Rainbow Dash, Tails, Amy, Pinkie, Shadow, and Knuckles himself registered for the events.

A few ponies from the crowd noticed Knuckles' Ram and swarmed over to the truck, knowing the Famous Sonic the Hedgehog and Shadow was with him. The truck doors open and the Mane6 and Sonic team immediately filed out, and when Sonic finally stepped out there was a loud cheer; ignored by the Blue Blur of course.

Knuckles pressed an app on his phone and his truck hydraulically lowered itself as the Car hauler automatically unloaded the pristine bikes and in Tails case, a supercharged v10 including Rarity's cruiser for after the races.

The Racers (Sonic, Amy, Rainbow Dash, and Shadow) walked their bikes to the bike drag strip, earning some well-deserved stares and jaw drops from the excited crowd that google-eyed at the never before seen racer's racing machines (Sonic's and Shadow's and Amy's) prompting photographers and journalist to come over like flies.

They finally reached the drag strip and registered in, lining their bikes getting ready to race. An announcement rang over the blaring speakers informing the spectators that the race will begin in 5 minutes and immediately enthusiastic fans filed in like ants swarming some discarded candy and chose their seats.

"ALLLLLLLRIGHT Fellow Pony Derby fans we have a speciaaalllll race today!" The Announcer of the Pony Derby boomed, "WEEEEEEEEE have a very famous racer here folks, Sooonic the Hedgehog! We all know him of his blinding speed, but how will his dragster skills meet to par?

The crowd continued to cheer and fan girls screamed out Sonic's and Shadow's name. Sonic smirked and gave the fans what they wanted and revved up his Ducati Desmosedici RR and the Crowd went crazy. 360 horsepower blaring like a war horn, enticing the crowd to cheer like crazy.

Shadow, not going to be outdone by his friendly enemy, pulled hard on the throttle, making the earth shake and making the crowd go silent for a few seconds in slight fear and amazement before wilding out in an amazed cheer, making Shadow smirk and look at Sonic with challenge in his eyes. The Spectra-haired Rainbow Dash decided to up the ante by burning out; her tires shooting a vibrant, multicolor cloud of speckled dust into the air, spiking the crowd into oohs and ahhs.

There were 3 other racers competing with Sonic team and Rainbow Dash, two of them world renown and one of them, Maverick , is the guy who took Rainbow's crown a two years ago and running in every Motorsport she entered into. Dashie's magenta eyes glared at him as he soaked in the crowd's attention to him when the announcer called his name and reciting the long list of awards and races he won.

The announcer finished introducing the racers and the suddenly the crowd got quieter; but still audible as the Racing Lights lit up a deep red color.

Sonic cracked his neck to the left to right and flicked a pair of green racing shades seemingly out of nowhere and put them on. The Blue Blur flicked a switch on his mini dash board causing the wheelie bar to extend out and his bike to lower itself more, hugging the hot, asphalt ground. He smirked and winked over at Rainbow Dash, making her eyes wander around nervously and blush a bit.

Shadow narrowed his eyes and started too revved up his monstrous bike, shaking the ground. He is NOT going to let Sonic win this time. He gritted his teeth as he tuned everything out of his mind to focus.

Rainbow Dash put on her bike matching helmet on and dipped down in her bike, unintentionally showing off her slender, silky body. Sonic looked over to her wishing he hadn't; a dim red started to show on his cheeks.

Back dimples...

**ON YOUR MARKS!**

The racers revved their powerful bikes, Sonic, Shadow, And Dashie burning rubber, the crowd yelled as a single, mighty voice.

**GET SET**

Dashie mind went into meditation mode for a second. Everything slowed down as she saw the drag race lights light up yellow. The yellow lights refracted off her racing goggles as she looked to her left. Amy was blowing kisses to the crowd, her long eyelashes fluttering photogenically in the light. She then turned her head to the right seeing the Blue Blur calm and focused on the asphalt ahead of him. His tires spun viciously in place, shooting out a stream of smoke and asphalt behind him, she admired his determined face.

Past Sonic she can see the Demented Bull revved to full throttle. Shadow's face was cold and calculating, staring into the sky at something she couldn't visibly see, muttering something then returning his gaze to the road ahead of him as he flicked out a pair of amber shades and put them on.

Dashie eyes returned its focus back in front of her. The world rushing back to her, the sounds and the sensations flooded her being. She needed to win. She was going to win.

**GO!**

Each bike took off the starting line with a roar or a scream. Shadow's bike growled with some unholy sound as his pipes spouted huge tongues of fire. Sonic's bike blasted off ahead neck to neck with Rainbow Dash. He looked to the side at her and smiled, he threw up thumbs up and shifted his bike and it began to pull ahead, with Shadow close behind.

Sonic shifted gears as quickly as he accelerated sending him ahead of the pack. Shadow clicking in a close second, then Maverick then Rainbow Dash then Amy. Rainbow couldn't believe this. No, no. **SHE'S NOT GOING TO LOSE ANOTHER RACE!**

A slow flame of focus and determination started to burn in her as she eyed her targets that she HAS to defeat. First Maverick, then Amy then Shadow, then Sonic. Easy peasy, super fluffy marshmallows are good but too much will make you queasy.

Rainbow Dash put in all her bike had; finish line coming up fast; she shifts. 3rd place. One down, two to go. Her fire of determination and ambition overflowed her very being. The wind whips past her, her engine screaming. Shadow in 2nd place; "streamline him" she thinks. Her heart pounds faster; pull away and shift; pasted him. Sonic is all that is left, all that stands in front of her and winning.

Sonic smirked; the finish line just a few hundred meters away. Slowly a spectrum colored helmet and bike came into his peripheral vision on his right. Sonic snapped his head to the right in awe seeing Rainbow Dash had caught up to him.

Rainbow's bike screamed in mechanical agony as its pistons pumped up and down at an unearthly speed. The cyan Pegasus could taste victory. Finally she can take down the fastest things alive; destroy Maverick's reputation, and take home the trophy and earn bragging rights for years to come.

***clunk*** -A shiny object from Rainbow Dash's bike hit the ground, too quick for anyone to actually see it, well, except for Shadow. Shadow's quick red eyes looked back at the object and confirmed what notion he had. Rainbow Dash is about to-

Sonic can't believe this; she's pulling ahead of him! She's going to win— as if in slow motion, Rainbow Dash lost all control of her bike. The handle bars swerved to the right and everything else came crashing down...

"**RAINBOW**!" Sonic yelled out and quickly, without thinking, jumped from his bike, arms outstretched for her. He could see her frightened and shocked eyes as she fell towards the asphalt below her; he was not going to let that happen, not to his friend. He grabbed her and curled into the ball and awaited the harsh, backbreaking crash to the ground. A flash of black entered his peripheral vision and then a flash of green.

-Everything went dark; simply vanishing, and then slowly, at a crawl, Rainbow Dash's surroundings became blurry, except the finish line which was mere meters in front of her. The image of the checkered line burned in her mind as she realized she failed. As if in slow-motion the cruel, hot ground came closer to her face as she fell. "This is gonna hurt..." she thinks to herself as she closes her tearing up eyes. Suddenly an unforeseen force rammed into her, but not rammed as in with blunt force, but as in a cradling type fashion. Rainbow Dash opened her eyes back up looking up at her rescuer, she wish she didn't./ _Out of all people she rather it not be Sonic to help her, but she did want Sonic to help her? Why did Sonic forfeit the race to help her?/_Tons of questions bombarded her mind until suddenly a flash of green emanated around her making her feel nauseous and the world again fell to darkness.

Rainbow Dash slowly opened her eyes; her helmet had been taken off of her prior to her waking back up. A hazy view of Sonic cradling her caught her attention as did the scowling Shadow.

"Great, there goes my trophy," Scowled Shadow as he looked on at the racers finish the race with Maverick in the lead. "Thanks again Shadow for your help" Sonic thanked to his doppelgänger who waved his hand dismissively and walking off to get his bike which hung in the hair in paused time. Sonic's emerald green eyes looked worriedly in his friend's eyes, worried if she was okay. Wondering what happened to her bike, how did such a magnificent machine have such a vital flaw? Was it sabotaged-? No, not likely. Right?

"Are you okay Dashie?" Sonic said helping her to her feet.

"Oh yeah, never felt better! Too bad you had to lose your trophy…"

"Me? Haha if anyone was going to win the trophy it should have been you" he said with a smile then leading the way back to the crew to get situated and watch Pinkie Pie compete in the rock climbing contests and Tails his Hotrod racing.

The Sun started to set behind the skyscrapers on the horizon as the crew started to pack up their vehicles and in Rarity's case, tons of shopping bags.

The cool breezes of the night whispered and danced around the closing event, whipping the blonde hair of Applejacks' around as she leaned back against Knuckles' truck, looking up into the violet and pink streaked sky. Applejack purely loved how the light shines brilliant pink and violet and purple hues as the rays refract off the wispy clouds during the sunset.

Another light gust of wind blew past her as she started to ponder about herself. Nineteen, going on twenty, still living with her family, had not yet a boyfriend. Shoot, even Applebloom, as young as she is even have a little love interest chasing her tail wherever she may be. But why is it that whenever she did have a crush on a certain someone that certain someone pay her no mind and in her face, ogle at her best friend, in HER face!

Then Aj started to fume, her fists clenched, her eyes squinted shut and a certain feeling rose in her belly that was rather alien to her. So much frustration and, and, heartache, and, gosh darn it. She opened her eyes and a small, pretty smile donned her freckled face. She had to admit it; she loved the crazy, red echidna. His brashness and hard muscles hid something in him. Aj can feel it, she can sense it. Oh how that crazy echidna just turns her on. His hardiness, his honesty, and his strength- she ventured down memory lane to the address of the time when he first came to the farm. Sure he didn't come for her, but he came because he wanted to work. Now a working man, whew! That thought alone made her shiver.

She braced herself on the truck with her hands behind her and started to think some more. A couple of minutes went by as she didn't notice the gang coming back from the events.

"Um, let me know when you're done molesting my truck, 'cause it's time to go." Knuckles said gruffly and jokingly as he neared the truck with Sonic, Shadow, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Tails, Flutters, Pinkie, Amy, and Rarity from saying their goodbyes. The gang all climbed into the truck and set off back to Ponyville.

**[The following night]**

Knuckles pulled up to the large garage he rented to keep their vehicles in. He pressed a button on his dash which initiated the large chrome door to rise up and allowed passage for Knuckles' cargo.

Inside was a bright white space that accommodated machines big and small: Tails' Tornado and Hurricane jet models, another big truck but this time it was a blacked out Ford Rapture obviously Knuckles', a small skeleton of a dragster Tails was working on, and tons of other machinery.

Knuckles parked the truck and everyone filed out with grogginess since most of them was sleep prior. After many of the sleepy friends said their goodbyes and goodnights, they departed to their respective homes except for the red echidna that stayed in the garage to unload the vehicles off his truck and refuel the diesel sucking monster.

Knuckles went to one of the lockers on the far side of the wall and took off his yellow and white marshmallow vest off and took off his white gloves and changed into a pair of dirty work gloves and returned to his truck and took down the wrecked puzzle of metal and carbon fiber that used to be the best motorcycle Equestria had ever seen; Sonic is going to be crushed. He had worked so hard on it. Knuckles shook his head and proceeded to remove the other bikes, starting with Rainbow Dash's bike, Spectra, which surprisingly enough didn't have the same catastrophic damage done to it as Sonic's bike had taken.

The strong echidna then unloaded the rest of the bikes and vehicles and prepared to go back inside the house to go get some well needed sleep until he heard the door of the shop open and a tiny shuffle of feet.

"Hey? Who's there?"

Curious, Knuckles investigated the sound of the intrusion. As he came closer the source of the sound moved again which made Knuckles annoyed and he gave chase which in turn made the culprit get spooked and unluckily run into something hard and metal.

"Hah! I got you now!" Knuckles cheered triumphantly as he closed in.

What he saw made his celebratory smirk melt in anxiety and fear as he saw Applejack sitting on the smooth concrete floor, holding her head as it slowly leaked blood. The thick, crimson liquid flowed in branches down her arm as she looked up at Knuckles with a pained, guilty look.

"What the Hell are you doing here?" He said as he quickly yet cautiously scooped her up and carried her bridal style into the house.

Shadow made his way back towards Twilight's house so he could watch the stars from his usual spot. As the Ebony hedgehog crossed the street he thought about today. "_Was saving their sorry asses worth the consequence_?" No trophy in his hand, that big golden trophy; a chance to rub in all the glory in his rivals faces. Shadow continued to ponder his choices from earlier in the day as he rounded the corner of Sugarcube Corner; waving a succinct goodbye to Pinkie Pie.

The night was quiet and calm; a soothing warm breeze blew through the town ruffling up Shadow's quills. The full moon was already on its silent journey down the sky as he rounded another bend towards Twilight's house, still thinking to himself.

Shadow finally arrived at Twilight's home and prepared to jump up onto the balcony until a voice interrupted him.

"Shadow?"

"Twilight?"

"Why not come inside instead of sitting out there on the balcony all night." Twilight said, coming from behind him.

"I don't sleep, if I do it's for merely enjoyment." he said frankly as he stubbornly prepared to jump again, only once again to be stopped by the audacious unicorn.

She paused, and then a small scheming smirk slowly made itself apparent on her face. "Who said we had to sleep... "Her voice suggestive, she softly pressed herself up to him as she stepped closer to Shadow.

Shadow looked at her with a confused look for a second as she slowly led him to the door to her house, beckoning him in, and which he followed hesitantly behind her.

Rainbow Dash walked in an awkward silence staring in front of her watching as Sonic and Amy walked side by side, his cobalt blue fur brushing up against Amy's pink fur, a weird shiver crawled down her spine as tried to tear her eyes from them, but she didn't at the same time. She wanted to intervene; "tell the hedgehog what you think of him! Do it now before he is forever lost to that pink fan girl!" her mind screamed at her as she continues to trail behind them. At this point they've reached ( the departing party from Knuckles garage) Pinkie Pie's house to which she sleepily yet enthusiastically waved goodbye to everyone, a special goodbye to Shadow, to which the ebony hedgehog curtly waved goodnight to her.

Rainbow dash looked up in the air seeing that her cloud house was coming into her view slowly; soon she can depart from this terrible sight in front of her. Oh how the cyan skin girl wished her house was closer, she couldn't believe how impeccable Amy's flirtation skills were, and to her amazement it didn't seem to majorly affect Sonic at all. Maybe there was some hope for her after all.

She waved goodbye to Fluttershy and Tails as they both took another road off to her cottage; the poor pegasus could barely keep her head up, sleepy thing. A few minutes later she waved goodbye to Twilight as Shadow and her took a corner to head to Twilight's house.

A few minutes later the trio was nearing where Applejack lives while heading to Sonic's house that resided on the countryside, completely void of the bustling townsfolk. The moon seemed to sit on one of the large rolling hills on the Moonlit moor (as the name suggests) striking a beautiful view that shined it's glorious rays upon everything in sight, casting a silvery glaze upon every tree, house, and body within reach.

They came up on a two story, simple house that was painted a comely light blue with white trim; there was a huge yard that extended out to the Moonlit moor. The moon sat silently directly behind his house.

Amy then stopped in front of his long drive way and turned to Sonic who yawned greatly. Amy's photogenic smile and eyes sparkled with the epitome of beauty and essence. Sonic turned to Rainbow Dash and threw a thumbs up at her and winked, "That's your place right?" He shot a quick glance at her house that silently creeping across the sky. "Well I'll see you tomorrow Dashie" he smiled at Rainbow Dash to which she blushed at, that blush draining away to be replaced with an annoyed/frustrated look as she knew she lost her chance to tell Sonic how she felt. "Yeah, hehe, goodnight Sonic… Goodnight Amy…"

Rainbow Dash then reluctantly and tiredly flew up towards her house, slowly, trying to catch any last conversation they might have.

"Thanks for walking me home Amy, and congrats on the second place-" Sonic's thank you was cut off abruptly as Amy gave him a warm hug that almost seemed to fill him with energy.

Sonic breathed in her warm, floral scent, a relaxed smile crept on his face as she continued to hug him. Usually this would have never happened; he would never allow Amy to even dare to embrace him, for this long anyways. But this kind of felt comforting to Sonic.

Amy smiled more as she soaked in the unbelievable reality that Sonic isn't pushing her away.

Amy backed up a tiny bit and just smiled and stared at the blue hero, her eyes almost tearing up. "You don't know how long... How long I've just wanted to do that, how long I wanted you to accept my affection towards you."

"Hehe well,-" again Sonic was cut off abruptly as Amy held him close to give him a quick smooch on his blushing cheek.

"Goodnight Sonic! I'll see you tomorrow!" Amy exclaimed, her heart ready to burst with happiness and excitement, she skipped back down the road they've came from and disappeared around a bend.

Sonic held his cheek where her soft lips made contact and blushed deeply before turning away to enter his house.

"Wow..." Was all the Blue Blur uttered as he unlocked his door and stepped in.

Unbeknownst to them both a pair of teary magenta eyes was staring down at them from a cloud foundation, and those teary magenta eyes welled up with tears some more.


	2. Chapter 2

I was so not going to write this because well, this story didn't get much reviews and the viewer base was kind low so I guess it wasn't a good story. I thought it was good though, and some other reviewers wanted me to expound upon this little story so here's another chappie. Hope you like it. I might just keep adding to this like every few days in short chapters. But whatever. HOPE YAH LIKE AND PLEASE REVIEW AND READ MY OTHER STORIES. INCLUDING MY NEW ONE ABOUT SONIC AND BLAZE. THAT IS GONNA BE AN EPIC!

**[A few days later following the race, a lot of relationships had transpired hearts were broken and hearts was swelled with love and happiness. What didn't change though was all of their love for their machines.]**

Shadow was sitting on the iron studded; black leather seat on his totally wicked, fully customized death-chopper, the Demented Bull, its chrome accents gleamed in the warm, setting sunlight. Pinkie Pie was erratically and uncharacteristically stammering and stuttering every now and then while talking to him and smiling like a nervous idiot. She and Sonic's dark doppelgänger has grown into quite the pair of friends, shocking everyone to say the very least. Right now Pinkie Pie was talking about her to take him to meet Mr. and Mrs. Cake. He looked reluctant at first, but the Ultimate life form stayed as cool as a cucumber, and humbly accepted. Pinkie Pie jumped for joy at that and was about to lunge in for a hug but she remembered what they had talked about when they first hung out as friends.

No touchy.

The poufy haired girl then just rocked on her heels in excitement as Shadow turned his head to crack a- was that… a smile?!

Sonic's eyes bulged outwards and couldn't contain his shock as he just stared at Shadow cracking a small smile, smirk or whatever- it was a smile! He couldn't believe it. Shadow's small ray of sunshine broke into a scowl as he eyed sonic staring at him with 'stupid' written across his face. Shadow growled softly before turning his attention back to his crazy friend.

Sonic chucked to himself before taking his emerald gaze off of them and focused it on his buddy Tails who was working on his hotrods' new 800 horsepower, W-engine. Surprisingly, not surprisingly he built it from scratch using old parts from other vehicles in this world. He sure did learned one thing living here; Equestria was at least a few generations of knowledge and engineering behind Earth.

He wore dingy, grease-stained overalls and a tank top, which was also stained with oil and graphite, the overalls straps were down. He wore a pair of huge owl looking welding goggles over his head and he had on some work boots on his feet. His eyes were calculating and precise as he measured for clearance of the cylinder block for his new pistons he was going to put in. A certain purple and violet haired female was looking at him in a dreamy state as she voluntarily handed him the necessary tools he needed for the finishing up the tune up of his muscle car via magic. She started to form a one sided liking for the witty fox. She is a downright **sapiosexual. **And with that being said Tails and his big, big brain is a huge turn-on.

None of which is good news for Fluttershy, who actually thought Tails is a _really, nice gentleman-_ which means she probably really like him.

Twilight Sparkle wore a violet-purple, spaghetti strap top with lacy trim at the bottle and some dark blue jeans and cute, black flats to complete her look. Her tail and hair was neatly combed as if she was going to see someone important, when she's actually just hanging out with her friends chatting and fixing up cars- she should have dressed for the occasion.

She occasionally dipped low in front of Tails, acting as though she dropped one of his tools, trying to get some sort of reaction from him as she showcased her slender, attractive body for the Handsome Fox, but naturally he didn't take notice, not because he was ignoring her, per say, it's just that he had a more important task on hand.

Sonic chuckled again and smiled at that as he saw everything and facepalmed at Tails's innocence and total dedication to his golden-yellow hotrod, his work. Tails' hotrod sported a cool four inch lift kit and it rode on some sweet twenty-one inch rims in the back and twenty inch rims for the front, both styled in bullet holes, the tires were pretty thick as well. A long, flat roof scoop sat offset from the middle and two thin black racing lines ran right through the middle of the car. Tails actually had style? Whaaaat? Who would have known? He put his observant gaze on his red friend.

Knuckles sat on the shiny, chrome toolbox of his big, truck that would have made any redneck, truck loving southerner from Earth green with envy. The truck was a deep red like him, rolled on large, black, metallic painted rims and was wrapped in huge off road tires with a redline. The truck rode high on a 1 foot lift kit and rumbled deeply as it sat in idle beside Tails's own vehicle. Knuckles truck also had a large, mean looking, studded black bull bars which housed two lamps. The truck also had a custom studded grill that sat between some custom lights that would light up everywhere if he so commands it.

His deep country accented girlfriend sat on the toolbox with him as they shared a chocolate milkshake. Apple Jack leaned on his strong shoulder wearing a white tube top; showing off a lot of cleavage, since there was a lot to show, and a pair of stonewashed short-shorts that showed off her very strong, and smooth legs. Her hair and tail was both done in its usual messy ponytail. She also wore her favorite pair of dirty, worn cowboy boots and cowboy hat to complete her stereotypical southern look.

Her Strong echidna wore a "Booty Hunter" shirt with torn-off sleeves (showing his "humor") and a pair of black cargo pants with the belt tied around his waist- yeap, tied- no not looped like a regular individual but tied. He also had on heavy, steel toe boots on. They both were conversing about something, but Sonic either couldn't, or didn't care to hear it.

Rainbow Dash was parked right beside him and she sat on her bright Cyan racing bike that was spared from total destruction like Sonic's bike had endured. Rainbow colored racing stripes make up the bright, artistic paint job. Dashie's spectra hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail as she looked around aimlessly, obviously bored. She had on her black bra with a short cyan blue jacket on, unzipped. For bottoms she had tight black skinny jeans on. "Wow… She's really something..." Sonic thought to himself while he leaned himself against the hood of his new, razor-sharp, speed machine.

Sonic's new car was a cobalt-blue racing machine that screams with power if you were to rev it up. The car hugged the asphalt rode on wide, sleek black walls, wrapping the sporty red rims with style. The paint job was a classic yet dynamic blue with a white racing stripe going down each side of the car; from the front lights to the tail lights. A matching roof emblazed the roof and a stylish hood and side scoops provided ventilation to the mechanical god under the trunk; the quadruple turbo boosted, 1300 horsepower engine pushing faster than 310 mph easy. The scoops also provided additional aerodynamic properties for the car as well as the sleek and slender rear spoiler blazoned sharply on the trunk of the car. The rear tail lights were designed reminiscent to the Lamborghini Aventador and four wide pipes projected out the back and were tilted up a bit.

"SONIC!" A well-to-familiar voice pierced Sonic's pointy ears and he winced at the sheer volume. A perky, pink haired girl skipped happily up to the Blue Blur and jumped on the hood of his car to accompany him. Amy had on a super cute, short light-pink and light-blue plaid skirt with a cute white button up shirt that was tucked in and a light blue bow around her neck. She also wore her favorite black, high top boots and white knee high socks to finish her look. (Not to mention the other jewelry she had on)

Rainbow Dash huffed in annoyance and slight jealously at the sight of the pink hedgehog. Ever since the race Amy and Sonic was becoming more and more as a couple which pained Rainbow Dash internally but she always kept a stoic face about it to not draw attention to her. Fluttershy knew though, she knows everything. And right now Sonic and Amy was holding hands and looking off into the sunset talking about whatever. Rainbow Dash was tired of listening on to their conversations, they only pained her more and more.

Rainbow dash toyed with a simple beaded bracelet she made on her arm, originally meant for Sonic... But… She sighed with exasperation and unwillingly listened on to Sonic's and Amy's conversation. She would move, but she wanted to be close to Sonic as much as she can, Celestia knows how long it has been since they actually had the time for any 'alone' time.

Amy leaned her head softly on Sonic's strong shoulders, "I was thinking about you all day at work today, Sonic. I missed you…" the pink hedgehog said amorously, to which Rainbow Dash huffed passive aggressively at. Sonic smirked "I don't know why you get so upset for, you're gonna see me every night anyways" he chucked "Yeah I know…" there were a few seconds of silence between them as they both looked into the sunset.

"Have you thought about what I said?" she asked sort of sheepishly, which was unusual since she is usually up front and confident about what she wants.

"…" Sonic says nothing as he starts to think hard about it.

Rainbow dash felt a chill; _WHAT WAS IT!? Was it about him finally asking her out? Were they getting married? Did she ask him could she move in? Is a baby on the way? _The rainbow haired girl could have slapped herself right then and there. _They have to have sex first to have a baby… duh… And I've been watching his house like a hawk… What if they did it at her house? _Rainbow Dash had a little mental moment as she continued to listen to their conversation.

Rainbow Dash felt a stone in her stomach and she glanced quickly in the conversing Hedgehog's direction and Amy was giving a big smooch on Sonic's peach colored cheek. Sonic just grimaced shyly a bit and threw an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer.

At this Rainbow Dash seen and heard enough. Her heart felt like it was being stepped on as she stomped over to her bike, picking her helmet off the seat, slamming her black helmet with her cutie mark painted on each side onto her head, her face blushing heavily. She ignited the ignition to her motorbike and revved up her engine and it screamed to life, alerting everyone in the vicinity. She let the wheels spin a bit; spitting a wide spray of gravel behind her, then shooting off like a multicolored rocket from the pack of her friends, and down the dirt road towards Ponyville.

The remaining Mane Six and Sonic company looked at her disappear into the distance, wondering why she'd up and went like that. Fluttershy, obviously knowing that she seen or heard something Rainbow Dash didn't want to hear or see got worried for her friend and jumped off the roof of her electric car and more or less, sped off after her. Pinkie Pie frowned at the scene, and said her good byes to Shadow before followed suit in her totally rad, and totally pink, lifted Jeep Wrangler and sped off after Fluttershy, blasting some upbeat pop/techno music as her large wheels spit up a large amount of dust.

Applejack, Twilight, and Rarity looked on with worry on their faces but stayed put knowing that with Fluttershy on the case she'll feel better in no time.

Sonic was still looking at where Rainbow Dash had disappeared over the horizon. He contemplated about what may had happened to her, suddenly worried. At this moment sonic frowned and didn't even feel Amy as she tugged and cuddled Sonic's arm in a show of her endless affection.

The pearly white, full moon was starting on its journey in the cloudless sky when the sonic team and Mane Six finally decided it was time to head home. Tails announced that have finally finished his Hotrod and was ready to show the most trash talking-est person in the group.

"Aha! Knuckles I **BET** you and that hunk of metal won't stand a chance against this! My hotrod is going to blow your doors off!" Tails yelled out to knuckles over the rumbling of his hotrod idling. Knuckles look down at Tails as he now stood on his toolbox and snickered. The echidna then jumped off of his truck and spat in his hand and stuck it out at Tails.

"If I win you have to dress up like a hipster for a week!" The orange fox declared confidently and grasped his friend's waiting hand. Knuckles smirked at that dare.

"And if I win... "He paused for effect as he shared a comical smile with AJ. "You gotta kiss my ass." Their friends laughed and ooh'ed at Knuckles end of the dare. This is gonna be good.

Knuckles and AJ hopped in his big truck and revved the engine, the V8 big-block roaring to life and the stacks on the truck puffed out a dark huff of smoke and it leaned slightly to the left. Knuckles and Tails got aligned with each other on the path towards Ponyville and started to rev their engines, showing off their power and amazingness. Knuckles strong truck tilted to the left with each full-throttle rev and Tails gripped his clutch, ready to go!

Amy took this as her cue and jumped off Sonic's hood of his car and sprinted to her little, cute sports car coupe and withdrew a pair of poles from the trunk of her car and then rushed in from of the two racers. She pressed a button on its side and a magnificent array of colors sprang to life from the poles.

READY! The lights blazed yellow.

SET! The steaks of light were still yellow but grew in size.

Twilight watched on enthusiastically, ready to see _her_ fox wipe the floor with the Dread head. Applejack was sitting inside the truck with her feet up on the dash with Knuckles smirking next to her, obviously excited as she was. Rarity looked on but with slight interest, only thing that got her watching was the Knuckle's _preposterous_ dare. She sat on her sleek sports bike beside Shadow's Chopper; Shadow was too looking on with slight interest. He looked as though he already knew who was going to win.

Sonic was still on top of his car but leaning forward with high interest as Amy swung down her arms as she shouted **GOOOOOOOO**!

Both competitors mashed hard on gas but on one vehicle moved.

Knuckles roared off the starting line and bolted down the road. With Apple Jack yelling "YEEEE-HAWWWW" out from the truck and waving her hat out the window as they took off down the road, kicking up dust that swirled around Tails' hotrod.

Tail's car on the other hand did not in fact move, but instead the Engine practically exploded and the car made a knocking sound and hissing noises, exuding steam from the engine compartment.

Sonic, chuckling profusely, walked up to his buddies' hotrod and stuck his head in and looked at his friend for a few seconds smiling cheekily. Sonic slowly pulled out something in his pocket and handed it to him, everyone looked over at the exchanged and roared with laughter as Sonic gave Tails a cotton-candy smelling lipstick that he snatched out of Amy's car for the gag.

Sonic kept his composure as he walked away until he body couldn't contain it and broke down into laughter. He laughed over to his car, hopping in, and driving off in a flurry dust, with the rest of his friends following close behind. Tails growled to himself and slammed his head down on the steering wheel which then shot out an airbag at his face.

"Ughhhh."


	3. Chapter 3

A high speed redline from Rainbow Dash's taillights drew a vibrant line in the air where her sport bike sped through as she headed out through town towards Sweet Apple Acres. Her cyan bike screamed with power as she gripped the throttle harder. She weaved past parked cars and traffic effortlessly with her teeth gritted, holding in her emotions.

_Damn that girl… damn her to Tartarus! _Rainbow Dash thought to herself furiously regarding Amy Rose.

Rainbow Dash was blasting down the road at well over 100 mile per hour between traffic as she made her way to her house. Right now she didn't care about getting caught by the police; she just wanted to get home ASAP. Her mind was moving as fast as her bike was, revolving around a certain cool hedgehog. She usually wouldn't concern herself with the likes of cocky men, ironically she don't really like cocky guys. Matter of fact, no guy ever had her feeling the way she was now since Soarin back when they used to "talk"- that all it was, "talking" and flirting, never transcending into anything more real than that. But Sonic…

The air whipped her hair and tail behind her like a pride flag as she ran three red lights in a row, narrow missing traffic along the way. She could hear their horns blasting at her as she rocketed away, she doesn't have to stop for any red lights, and especially she's the fasting thing on these streets! _Until Sonic came… _Rainbow Dash shook her head to clear her mind as she veered off the main streets to a dirt road where Sonic's house resided.

The cool night air engulfed her body as she road past Sweet Apple Acres; whishing the tree branches as she went past. She took a right and in a few seconds she raced past Sonic's house, the full Moon seemingly sitting directly above his house. She slowed down as she went ahead, looking out towards the Moonlit Moor that resided behind his house; thinking to herself. _It really does look nice out tonight… What I would give to just relax out there with Sonic… Then it would be him holding me instead of that hussy… _

"GAH! What is wrong with me!?" Rainbow Dash huffed with frustration as she shook her head again, trying to get rid of tonight's events out of her head. She looked above and saw her house sitting there on top of a large, pillowy-white foundation of clouds._ Finally home._ She turned into a small garage underneath her house and parked her bike there before taking off to the skies, making her way to her house.

Her ears then pricked as she heard a car sound racing down the street towards her. _Is that Sonic?! _She thought excitedly, only to mentally slap herself again for that engine sound couldn't possibly be Sonics', the engine sound she was hearing couldn't possibly be anything over v6. Soon she could see Fluttershy's slammed Prius C coming down the road with a larger vehicle, a pink jeep, trailblazing right after her.

_Sigh…_ _I just wanna be left alone… _

Fluttershy's car drifted to a halt and jumped out of her car. "RAINBOW DASH!" She almost tripped in a pothole before regaining her posture. "Wait!"

Rainbow Dash facepalmed, "Yeah, What is it Fluttershy, I was kinda bouta go to bed…"

Fluttershy hovered up towards her friend with a worried look on her face. "Are you okay?" Fluttershy said once she reached Rainbow Dash.

"Um yeah, of course I am." Rainbow Dash muttered dismissively, turning her head about to continue her ascent to her house.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah-" Rainbow Dash said, trying to convince Fluttershy, but naturally Fluttershy wasn't being fooled.

"Rainbow…"

Rainbow Dash sighed. "It's nothing, really, I just, had to get out of there."

"Is it because of Sonic?" Fluttershy gently pressed on.

"N-No, not exactly, it's a bit complicated than that…" Rainbow Dash looked off to her right down the empty street, looking at nothing in particular.

Fluttershy frowned; she knew her friend didn't want to talk about the matter although she really wanted to help Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy rested her small hand on Rainbow Dash's shoulder and looked into her eyes sincerely. "I'm here for you whenever you want to talk, okay? I been watching and I think I know what's up…" Fluttershy then put on a small smile, "Try not to think too much about it, thinking about it won't make anything any better."

Rainbow Dash returned the look into Fluttershy's caring eyes and put on a small smile and nodded twice acknowledging her friend's advice. The two gave each other a friendly hug just as a flurry of color floated up beside them with its passenger beaming up at them with a bundle of rope around her waist. It was Pinkie Pie being suspended in the air by a circus full of colorful balloons.

"WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?!" Pinkie Pie said with glee, smiling her big smile which made Rainbow Dash smile; she couldn't help it, Pinkie can just bring out the best in her.

"Oh, nothing, we're leaving, let's let Rainbow Dash sleep." Fluttershy said with a smile on her face and floated down retrieving the hanging strings of Pinkie's balloons and pulling her back down to the ground.

"Weeeeeeeee!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie with joy, "Nighty Night Rainbow Dash!"

"Goodnight Rainbow, have a wonderful sleep!" Fluttershy called up to her friend as the two then got into their cars and drove away, a large flag of balloons following Pinkie's truck like flies.

Rainbow Dash waved happily to them as they left and proceeded up to her house. Once in her home she went straight to her room and just about to lie down just as she heard the unmistakable scream of Sonic's supercar blazing down the road. Rainbow quickly got up to her bedroom window that overlooked the Moonlit Moor and Sonic's house to see Sonic coming down the road and pulling into his driveway. A small smile crept on Rainbow Dash's face but quickly dissolved into a frown when a pink and white mustang gt500 quickly pulled up beside the Sonic's machine.

She could see Sonic jump out of his car, laughing about something, then Amy getting out of her car, laughing with him. Sonic tapped the hood of his car and pointed to her car; Rainbow Dash knew Sonic, because he was so much like herself, he was most likely comparing their cars or joking about how slow her car is compared to his.

Rainbow Dash knew she shouldn't be watching this; her night was ending off on such a good note too since her friends came to cheer her up. But this, this wasn't helping at all, especially at the fact that Sonic eventually led her into his house… Rainbow Dash grimaced as she felt a stone drop into her stomach. What a hopeless crush this was, how could she ever hoped to be with Sonic- _I'm obviously not his type… maybe I'm not attractive enough… she does has more body that the boys love than I do._ Rainbow Dash looked down upon her body, upon her humble breasts, her small, slender, non-curvy frame. _Ugh! Why am I even thinking like this! This isn't me, this isn't me at all! _

Rainbow Dash, now frustrated of herself and irritable about how her night ended finally lay down in bed trying to get some sleep. She did have work in the morning after all, hopefully tomorrow would be a better day.

Shadow had long recently arrived at Twilight's house to get ready to go to sleep for the night since nothing else was going on. He was the only ones of Sonic Company that lived with the Equestrians. He decided to reside at Twilight's house solely because her house was calmest and most quiet of the other of the Mane6. Besides she also had a balcony that had a wonderful view of the Andromeda and Milky Way Galaxies, and using Twilight's professional grade, high-powered telescope he also had a spectacular view of a far away black hole within the Milky Way Galaxy that no one had ever seen before.

Since Twilight hasn't gotten home yet he figured he might as well get comfortable and read something. Shadow slipped his shoes off and put it into the guest bedroom and removed his black button up shirt. The shirtless Shadow walked silently past Spike's room and downstairs to the library.

Skimming the large collection of books on the shelf he came across an old book which he picked up and sat down in Twilight's lounge chair with his back against the armrest, his right foot in the chair and his left foot dangling off the chair. He opened the book to start at page one and within a couple of minutes he was lost inside of the dusty pages.

About thirty minutes later the sound of a key unlocking a door rang out as Twilight entered her house; it was about 3:00 am now. She put down her purse on the side table without noticing Shadow in her lounge chair reading a book. She finally looked up and froze as a big blush spread across her face. Shadow the Hedgehog… Shirtless… reading a book… by candle light… she felt as though she was gonna melt as Shadow flipped a page then looked up at her, his red eyes looking mysterious and admittedly sexy in the candlelight.

"O-Oh I didn't see you there Shadow… reading about Star Swirl the Bearded?" she asked timidly as she finally tore her eyes off of his eyes and looked at the book cover.

"Yeah, it's interesting how even though with his spectacularly vast knowledge of magic spells and conjuring expertise, he still wasn't able to understand the magic of friendship thoroughly. I also took the liberty to research on a few other things while you were gone- Do you think that tomorrow you would be able to show me the Tree of Harmony?" Shadow said while he bookmarked his spot in the book then getting up and putting the book back in its rightful spot.

Twilight's mind wanted to jump on top of the sexy, **smart**, hedgehog and take him for herself but she nodded her head at his request, wearing a shy yet interested smile. "Of course I can, I have nothing better to do anyways…" She trailed off nervously.

For a couple of long seconds passed as Shadow and Twilight looked at each other until Twilight pointed up towards the second floor. "Y-You want to examine the stars with me- I I mean, if you aren't too sleepy to tired or whatever." She finished quickly, in a way intimidated by Shadow's being; albeit it's not a bad type of intimidation, just that for whatever reason she lost all sense of coercion in her words and confidence.

Thankfully to her nervous mind Shadow eventually nodded and headed towards the balcony. Twilight nervously watched him before picking up a nearby pillow and screaming into it. Abruptly stopping her little moment she teleported upstairs into her room and closed the door; she held her hand over the lock pondering whether to lock it or not; she chose the latter. She smiled the undressed quickly before getting into some more comfortable clothes. She pulled on her silk, purple pajama shorts and a matching top- she ditched the top and just chose to get one of her lovely purple, silk robes and purposely tied it loosely.

Once satisfied with her appearance she quickly walked out to meet Shadow who was already standing over the rail of the balcony, looking up at the stunning view of the stars above. Twilight slowed her pace and quickly walked outside onto the balcony and stood beside Shadow, too looking up into the sea of stars and swirling gas nebulas light years away. She looked to the side to see Shadow's handsome face lost in thought as he watched the stars. Twilight couldn't help but smile and admire his focus.

"You know… you really love the stars." She giggles, "If I didn't know any better I would think you used to live up there." She continued smiling.

"I did." Shadow said simply.

"Oh…" She looked confused at first, "Oh?" she looked at him and he smirked at her from the side.

"Yeah… It's kind of a long story; I don't want to drag you into it." He chuckled as he scratched his neck, jingling the little silvery dog tags he wore.

"No, I want to hear it!" the purple haired girl exclaimed, looking at him eagerly.

"You sure?" Shadow held a skeptical face as he looked at her.

"Mmhm!" She continued looking up at him with an eager face. He slightly blushed and turned his face back to the vast stars above them.

"Well… it goes a little like this…"

After a long talk about work; Amy is a waitress at a new hip bar-club that opened up last week promptly named the "BLUR", directly named after, you guessed it, Sonic the Hedgehog after he saved club from a gang from Manehatten that tried to embezzle money out of the club owner. Sonic is a mercenary that works for Canterlot's Royal Guard Force, meaning he works either alone or on his own terms to get jobs done where in regular jurisdiction you may have to get a warrant or special permission to do the jobs a mercenary does. Basically a bounty hunter if you will.

After the talk about work and a few drinks Amy decided to ask her big question.

"Sonic…" Amy said softly as Sonic drank down his strawberry daiquiri (just a little alcohol, nothing to get drunk off of- or even tipsy for that matter). Sonic looked up from his drink and put his eyes on the pink hedgehog in front of him.

"Yeah Amy?" Said Sonic as he lightly licked the sugary rim of the daiquiri, Amy blushed at this finding Sonic lapping his tongue at the sugary rim pretty cute.

"I uh, wouldn't you want to have a relationship with me?" She finally got out; uncharacteristically of her since she is usually up front about things she wants.

Sonic, knew immediately what she meant, he stared at the table and paused his licking. "You mean as mega best friends?" he continued his licking of the glass rim before Amy playfully shoved him on the shoulder and he started snickering.

"You know exactly what I mean, Sonic!" she giggled a bit before she got serious again.

Sonic was sweating now, he didn't want this to end, and he loved having a female friend around- **FRIEND**, that's it! Sure he thought about being in a relationship with Amy, but… everything was going so well. Sure she got a lil touchy here and there but having her around, racing with her, joking and laughing with her not chasing him every moment of the day was feeling so great! He knows if he dared say yes to her question he would have to spend just about all his time with her, he will have to tolerate her endless calls and needs- _oh no… she might want to move in…AHHH! _

Besides, in all honesty, Sonic thought of Amy as nothing more than a really good friend or a sister. And he preferred it that way.

Sonic didn't realize he was staring at the table this whole time.

He licked the rim again then looked up at her. She returned his look with a longing, amorous look. He didn't want to say no either just plain out… Especially with that face she was making…

Sonic licked the rim again after a few long seconds of looking at her.

"Soniiiicccc…" Amy whined, she pouted, sticking her bottom lip out cutely.

"A- Amy, you know how I feel about relationships…" Sonic started cautiously.

"What's wrong? It's not like Eggman can use me against you anymore."

"Yes I know, but-"

"Am I not your style?"

"What- No that's not what I'm saying at all-"

"Am I not pretty enough for you?!" her tone started to rise a little.

"No, no no no that's not what I'm saying at all-"

"You worried that I'll hold you down from your carefree lifestyle?!"

"Wha- I-

"What Sonic! What is it! I have been waiting and being patient, waiting for you to make the first move- OBVIOUSLY you're not gonna do it so that's why I've been trying to get with you this whole time. I've been waiting all my life basically, Sonic! We've been friends for a decade now, ever since you first saved me, and you still, YET, for some reason I don't know why, you still don't like me! What have I done wrong…?" Amy let out all of her frustration out and now was starting to tear up.

Sonic was absolutely lost of words as he stared at Amy slack jawed, he fumbled with what to say in his mind. _I guess these fun days of just having Amy as a friend is close to ending… Oh good going Sonic, you made her cry… Oh shut up me…. _ Sonic shook his head and put on a reassuring smile and reached over to touch her hand. Amy felt as though she wanted to pull her hand back but she let Sonic comfort her. She closed her eyes as the small tears escaped her eyes and trailed down her cheeks.

"Please stop crying…" He got up and hugged his friend, "Please, don't let this hurt our powerful friendship, this is all I ever wanted in you Amy."

"But, But, But wouldn't you want this friendship to be something even powerful-" Amy started.

"Shhh, Shhh, Shhh, don't rush things Amy-"

"Oh that's ironic coming from you…" Amy interrupted him, couldn't help but giggling.

Sonic lightly head butt Amy on top of her quills and smiled. "Oh hush you."

"Sonic… I love you so much… I just want one of my life long dreams to come true…" Amy buried her head into his chest and holds to him tightly, enjoying this hug.

"I love you too Amy- As a mega best friend." He smiled and lightly chuckled before Amy pushed him away.

"Ugh! You are such a goofball!" She threw her hands up jokingly and walked over to the couch to retrieve her purse and car keys.

"Are you leaving?" Sonic leaned against the hallway doorway as she got ready to depart.

"Yeah, I need to get home and take a nice stress relief bath! Because dealing with you I think I'm going to tear my quills out!" she said joking then blowing a raspberry at him and he dealt one back.

"Goodnight Sonic." Amy opened the front door and turned back to him and blowing a kiss at him. Sonic smacked the kiss out of his path to the floor and Amy threw her hands in the air again before leaving.

"UGH!" Amy exclaimed.

"Goodnight to you too!" Sonic called out as he stuck his head out the door as Amy got into her car, revving all 615 horses up a couple of times while she smirked at waved goodbye to him.

"WEAAAKK!" he playfully called out as she blasted down the road, the muscle car roaring all the way.

Sonic smiled as he watched her go, he looked around at the tranquil area around his house before casting his eyes up at the massive cloud house above him that was Rainbow Dash's. The house drifted slightly to the left as a small gust of wind blew past him. Sonic smirked as he thought about the super sleek and cool pegasus. Before his mind could delve deeper thinking about her he shook his head and headed back into the house.

**[][][][][][][]][][][][][][][][][][]**

**Yay, another chapter, finally! Sorry folks, I have been really busy with Discorded Relapse, and Harder Better Faster Stronger-not to mention the couple of works I put out (Sonaze and Shadouge works). I am gonna try to work on this more since I hit a brick wall on Harder Better Faster Stronger smh. Anyways, I would love some people to hit me up wanting to roleplay or something! **

**I guess I'll see y'all next week! **

**Lol I got well over 700 views on this yet I have NO followers or favorites. Dang. xD**


	4. Chapter 4

Tails awoke peacefully the next morning smelling the alluring, pungent scents of tea and coffee being made. Tails' nose begged to follow the strong brew of the irresistible scent in the air and so Tails allowed himself to be lured out of the guest bedroom to the cottage style kitchen where Fluttershy sat on the countertop beside of the coffee machine, her herself drinking a nice, warm cup of tea.

Her demure, cyan eyes cascaded smoothly from the floor to Tails as soon as he walked in. "Good morning Tails, how was your sleep?" Fluttershy asked kindly, she slightly kicked her feet superbly.

Tails smiled as she greeted him, her soft, kind voice massaged his ears, her soothing especially this early in the morning. "Fine, and thanks, how about you?"

"Wonderful, thanks," she reached to the left side of her and retrieved a steaming cup which emanated wonderfully scented fumes. "This coffee is for you… - it's not the regular that you're used to- I made this one special." Fluttershy timidly said, comb her hand through her hair to get her long locks from obscuring her view of the young kitsune.

"Really?" Tails asked slightly surprised. He lifted the mug up to his nose and gave it a big whiff and instantly his eyes dilated. _Is that what I think it is…?_ Tails eagerly lifted the mug to his lips and took a throat-warming sip and once sipped he was instantly slack-jawed in awe.

"D-do you like it?" Fluttershy inquired, putting down her mug and looking at the vulpine nervously at the side, some of her hair hiding her face.

"It's **mint**!" Tails exclaimed acquiescently and then quickly taking another delicious sip of Fluttershy's special coffee. "I love mint!" he quickly took another sip of his coffee before joining Fluttershy on the seafoam-green countertop beside her.

"I'd take it you like it then." She giggled cheerily as he responded with only a nod and eager gulps as he took yet another sip. "I remembered how you told me you really enjoy mint candies and the smells of it when we first began to hang out, so I decided why not bring your favorite taste to start your day." At this Fluttershy kicked her small, bare feet some more. Her cheeks were rosy, either because Tails seem dearly infatuated in her drink she specially prepared for him, or because his fur was actually making contact with hers. She looked down at her effulgent, light gold fur and how it seemed to interweave amongst Tails' more vibrant gold fur, she viewed it lovely and fought the urge to fully lean on him.

"So um, what do you have planned for the day?" Fluttershy absentmindedly asked as Tails finally finished his cup of mint coffee.

"Well Twilight and I are supposed to work on my hot rod that totally died last night when I was racing Knuckles. After that I was planning to plan out a way to get us back home, that I still have that to work on." Tails scratched behind his ear as he pondered a bit.

At the mention of Twilight Fluttershy felt a small pang of jealousy that seemed to sink from her mind to her stomach. "You and Twilight?" Fluttershy repeated, she was now looking outside through the diaphanous, seafoam green curtains.

"Yeah, she should be over anytime now." Tails looked over to Fluttershy and instantly realizing how closely he was sitting next to her. He blushed a bit and scooted away from her, Fluttershy acted as though she didn't notice, but of course she was aware that he removed himself from being close to her, and she frowned slightly. Feeling a bit disconcerted she continued facing away from the fox towards the large bay window in the kitchen that allowed the morning sun to pour in.

"What about you, what are you doing today?" Tails asked.

Fluttershy looked down as she vapidly kicked her feet once more before answering. "Ohhhhh, I don't know." she sighed out as she thought about how uneventful her days usually are. "I didn't really plan anything today…" Tails nodded then slid off the counter, facing her.

"Thank you for the coffee Fluttershy, it was absolutely amazing." He stretched for a long second before continuing. "I'm going to go ahead and shower and get ready for the day." Tails smiled then exited the room going back to the bedroom to get ready.

Fluttershy nodded to his appreciation with a smile, but when he left she frowned as she thought about the handsome vulpine some more. _It's so like Twilight to go headstrong after the smart guys, first male I had interest in ever and wahlah, poof, he's gone._ She rolled her eyes._ There is no way I can compete with Twilight's audaciousness and beauty… _Fluttershy sighed then slowly slid off the counter and decided to get ready for the day's chores and assignments. With another sigh she left to go get dressed to feed her animals.

**[An hour later]**

Fluttershy wiped the sweat off her brow as the springtime sun's rays beamed down brilliantly upon her laboring body. All morning she weeded and planted, pricking out and potting up seedlings, hoisted heavy bags of manure and soil on her shoulders, tilled and watered, and even picked fruit and flowers for her own home all in three hours. She just finished tending to her chickens when she finally decided it was time for a well-deserved break from the dirt and sun. Her eyes cascaded from the chicken pens to the tall, mystical, stone obelisk that stood grandly in the center of her vast, bountiful garden. She uses the stone obelisk to measure time whenever she works in her garden. She read the shadow it casted and figured it was a little after 10:00 am.

She put away the chicken feed and her gloves into her shed before exiting to wave goodbye to her lovely birds that flew around her. As she rounded her house to enter through the front door she unexpectedly came across Tails lounging in an outdoor lounge chair, his head resting on his hands and his feet propped up on another chair. His eyes were closed as Fluttershy walked onto the porch to get a better look at him.

He was wearing a pair of black cargo shorts and a plaid short-sleeve shirt with the top three buttons unbutton to show part of his fluffy, strong chest. He also had on his usual work boots and work gloves on. Fluttershy slightly leaned in on him as her cheeks burned rosy as she found his soft snoring rather cute, but then something hit her. An epiphany colder than ice seemed to glaze over her body; if he is here, then that mean Twilight never came over! Contradictory, a warm wave of happiness washed over her skin and she smiled a small smile because that meant she will have more time with Tails. But then again, that must've meant that Twilight ditched their plans and probably have never told him to cancel their plans to work together this morning; why else would he be in his work clothes waiting on the front porch?

Fluttershy frowned at that realization and looked over the golden fox with sympathy before reaching out on of her delicate hands and lightly jogging him out of sleep. Tails moved his head over to the side, looking as though he was looking at her stomach. Fluttershy giggled before lightly shaking him again, this time he awoken and opened his eyes. He looked up towards Fluttershy just as a yawn escaped him.

"H-Hey Fluttershy," He yawned again, "What's up- OH snap! What time is it?" He answered his own question as he looked down at his watch.

"It's uh, oh- I guess Twilight never showed up." Fluttershy pointed out softly.

Tails scratched behind his ear and held his mouth to the side, "Yeah, I guess not," Tails got up and stretched lingeringly and let out smile grunts and groans as he did. "Looks like I'm working alone today, see you later Fluttershy." And with that he started to head down the street to Knuckles house where the massive garage was that held everyone's racing machines.

Before he could reach the end of the driveway Fluttershy quickly called out to him in desperation. "May- May I work with you?" Fluttershy blushed as she stood there silent. As if the her silence were contagious everything grew silent as if even the trees and the birds and the wind also awaited Tails' answer. Gently, a calm wind blew her winsome, rose colored hair to her face. As Tails seemed to ponder the question, she absentmindedly wipes the hair away from her lip as she nervously awaited Tails reply. Her heart beat quickened as he looked thoughtful for a moment; she feared that he would decline. She desperately wanted this, internally she repeatedly told herself that she wanted to get to know the smart fox more, but she knew that it was also for other dearly reasons.

Tails looked back at her questionably before donning a smile, "Sure thing Fluttershy, let's go!" He responded enthusiastically, he shifted his weight on one leg and folded his arms, standing, waiting for her.

Fluttershy, mind stagnant from her beseeching cries being answered, wondrously, stood there entranced for a moment of seconds before instantly jumping out of her trance state as she looked at him. "R-Right! Coming!"

She quickly rushed into the house to retrieve her keys and change her clothes. She was a whirlwind of untidiness; tossing her sun hat to the side on the couch, and then rushing into her bedroom, knocking over things along the way. She quickly discarded her sundress and tossed it behind her before kicking off her sandals and then changing into a pair of white, pleated shorts, and a pastel-green spaghetti strap shirt with a white flower on the center. She quickly slid on some socks and dived into her closet to retrieve her trainers. She easily slipped the right shoe on but while hopping towards the door trying to slip on the other shoe she tripped and knocked over a chair.

"Oh dear…" she commented as she fell to the floor.

Her animals in the house just watched her with deadpan expressions on their faces as Fluttershy clumsily maneuvered around the house trying to hurry.

Finally getting dressed she stumbled outside with keys in her mouth and putting lotion on her exposed shoulders. Tails watched with laughing eyes as he witnessed Fluttershy trying her best to not have him waiting. He lightly jogged over to her to help her out, and just in time too because as soon as he reached her she almost tripped again on a rock that was conveniently placed within her path.

Tails grabbed her gently before she tripped again and she looked up at him with a blush and nervously giggled. "T-thanths, whanta thake mah carh-" Fluttershy says incoherently before she mentally face palmed herself repeatedly when she realized that her keys were still in her mouth. She shook her head quickly with an embarrassed and took her keys out of her mouth, "I mean, do you want to take my car?" she chuckled and looked down to her feet.

Tails' heart could have exploded, that was SO cute. Tails started to laugh and lead the way to Fluttershy's slammed Prius C, opening the door for her then going over to the passenger side to get in.

Inside Fluttershy's mind she totally slapped her herself- she could've just die of embarrassment. _What's wrong with me today- it couldn't be- I admit, I do like Tails… but as a friend- why am I acting so buttery! Buttery? Something is wrong with me._

**/-/-/-/ Across town /-/-/-/**

After Pinkie Pie finished her early morning shift at Sugar Cube Corner planning her signature _super-duper _birthday parties, hosting gatherings and breakfast meetings, and finished serving breakfast at their new outdoor café she quickly went to change into her casual wear and set out to find something fun to do.

Once outside she whipped out her phone from her back pocket and dramatically slid it up (slide phone, remember Equestria is a little behind modern day earth- let's say about 2006) only to find out, sadly, that she received no new texts or calls while she was working. She closed her phone with a solemn clack. _I guess all my friends must be busy, or having their own fun._ She frowned a bit, but before long she perked back up, she know one _special _friend who's most likely be free, and quite frankly hanging out with him would make her day a ton better.

_Shadow!_

She fervently slid her phone back up and went to her contacts. She strolled down until she got to 'Shaddy' and tried to call his cell- it went straight to voicemail. "Aww…Shaddy, you too?" whined Pinkie Pie as a disconcerted frown strung across her face. She kicked the ground sourly before hopping into her Jeep in a single bound; a feat quite astounding since it is pretty high into the air, and then drove off towards the library bumping Vinyl Scratch's new mix.

Once arriving at Twilight's place she spotted a smiling Spike leaving the house with a giggling Sweetie Belle in tow; their hands held, fingers intertwined. _Aww that's so cute! I didn't know they've gotten together! _"Hey, Spike!" Pinkie Pie called out as she stood in her driver seat. "Have you seen Twilight around? And hi there Sweetie Belle!" Sweetie Belle waved gleefully at Pinkie Pie with her free hand while Spike looked thoughtful for a second.

"No, Twilight left early this morning along with that Shadow-dude." Spike replied, "Do you want me to relay a message to her when she comes back?" Spike asked while whipping out a special pen and a small, sticky note size piece of magical parchment.

With what he said about Twilight and Shadow being out early this morning without any notification from Shadow to herself ticked her off a bit. A hot feeling crawled over her skin as she pondered what would make him just get up and leave her to be lonely since on most other days he would at least stop by. _Wait, why am I getting mad over this- I have no say in what he does or who he does what with…_ Pinkie Pie shook her head quickly then put on a smile. "Oh, that's alright, thanks Spike!" The party girl covered the disappointment in her voice thickly with synthetic enthusiasm and happiness.

Spike nodded then resumed his conversation with Sweetie as they continued their tender walk along the street. Pinkie pie slumped back down in her seat and thought for a second. _Twilight and Shadow hanging out alone? As far as I know they don't hang out like chummy pals. Knowing Shadow, he most likely wouldn't have pulled Twilight out to hang out and talk about… It must be Twilight's doing… Hmmmmm…_ Pinkie Pie tapped her lip for a second, "Okie Dokie Lokie!" she said cheerfully to herself, before she turned up her music and drove off to find Rainbow Dash.

As she drove down the street she spotted a creamy white, low riding hybrid speeding down the street towards her way. _Oooh! A wild Fluttershy approaches! _With a smile she picked up speed before hitting the clutch hard then flicking the wheel to the left, sending her SUV over the double yellow line, her thick tires kicking up rubber and dust the whole maneuver. She held the wheel left, stabilizing it into the opposite lane; she just drifted a U-turn.

/-/-/-/-/

"Hey, isn't that Pinkie Pie?" Tails asked, mainly to himself, as he saw Pinkie's truck coming down the road on the opposite side of the street. Fluttershy noticed her truck and she almost waived if not for hearing the hot-pink Jeep accelerate then doing something she didn't expect to happen.

Tails watched on with surprise as the pink girl pulled off a U-turn flawlessly, her big tires making a loud _**'skeert-ing'**_ sound as she drifted up behind them. Pinkie's Jeep engine roared as she pulled up beside them, a big grin on her face. "Hey guys!" Pinkie Pie yelled out.

"Oh that's so cool!" Tails breathed out as he witness the smooth stunt Pinkie Pie pulled off, Fluttershy glanced at him for a long second as he eyed Pinkie's truck. _So he likes that type of stuff huh? I'm cool too, I'll show you Tails! _With eyes still glued to Tails she slowly applied pressure onto the accelerator pedal. Her car engine started to hum louder as it launched more power to her wheels and thus she accelerated forward. She snapped her eyes off him to the mostly empty road ahead of them. She gripped the steering wheel and pulled ahead of Pinkie Pie so they weren't side by side anymore.

Pinkie Pie held a confused look at first as Fluttershy sped away from her without even saying hello back, but before any negative thoughts could emerge she put on a smirk. "Oh, it's a race she wants? Then it's a race she'll get!" Pinkie Pie gripped her clutch and flung it into the next gear and pressed down on the gas pedal and pulled back up with Fluttershy. Pinkie's truck roared as she picked up speed as Fluttershy's car whined as the Prius four cylinders tried to push her car up to speed.

They quickly approached an intersection with a red light for both of their lanes. Tails eyes widened as they approached the intersection ever so quickly, yet Fluttershy haven't took her foot off the pedal yet. He had a shocked face, "F-Fluttershy! Watch out!" He apprehensively gripped the seat as he feared they would crash but Fluttershy didn't slow down. Sure she wasn't a racer like Rainbow Dash and Sonic &amp; Company were, hell, she isn't even a Modder or DIY type of gal, but that doesn't mean she doesn't know a thing or two about racing.

Fluttershy let her right hand off the wheel then gripped the handbrake tightly. They came up to the intersection just as a car entered it; Tails had wide, scared eyes, contrasting greatly against Fluttershy's calculating and calm eyes. Dust and flung rubber was everywhere, spitting out clouds even Rainbow Dash would be eager to gather. She pulled the handbrake hard and flicked the wheel to the right, sending her car drifting mere inches behind the car in the intersection- behind her Pinkie flawlessly mimicked her. Fluttershy's heart was beating fast, she couldn't believe she was doing this; why was she doing this? _To impress Tails…_ _You're doing this to impress Tails… you're so in love!_

_Am not!_

_Are too!_

Fluttershy shook her head, clearing away her contradicting thoughts. She looked to the right at Tails for a split second to see him staring dead ahead with his hand grasping the seat like his life depended on it. She smiled to herself and sped off towards the garage.

/-/-/-/

"Whoa! Fluttershy, I didn't know you knew how to drift!" Tails exclaimed "That was so cool! The way you handled that drift was pretty slick especially since drifting with an automatic front wheel drive car isn't as easy as it is with a manual." Tails continued to praise her as they both exited the car; Fluttershy was slightly flustered but kept a cool composer. Tails turned to her and smiled, "Honestly you didn't strike me as someone who would do that."

Fluttershy felt high from his praises and comments and while floating over the moon she smirked and winked at him borderline flirtatiously. "There's a lot you don't know about me Tails." Tails was still excited from the speed run to the garage that he didn't even notice her flirty gesture; Fluttershy thanked the heavens above for that ancillary favor as he walked over to a concealed object in the corner of the garage with an orange car cover with a vinyl black twin tail logo.

Fluttershy face palmed hard at what she just did. _Why Fluttershy, why! I am I derping out today? Did I just seriously wink at him?_

A rumbling engine echoing in the garage announced Pinkie's arrival. She pulled up into the massive garage just as Tails was rolling his machine over to the many carports in the garage, more specifically a lift.

Pinkie Pie hopped out beside Fluttershy with a grin on her face. "Sooo, what you and Tails doing all alone in this big ole garage, huh?" She rocked from her heels to her toes and back as she looked at Fluttershy with a smirk. Fluttershy blushed a bit as she knew what she was implying, but before she could reply Tails spoke up.

Tails glanced at her for a second as he started to raise his hot rod. "Fluttershy volunteered to help me out on my hot rod since Twilight didn't show up this morning."

"Yeah-" Fluttershy agreed, appreciative that he had spoken up instead of herself.

"Twilight…" Pinkie pie murmured, she faced Fluttershy and in a softer tone she whispered to Fluttershy, "You know Twilight went out with Shadow earlier this morning for something- didn't even say a word to anyone about it, not even Spike, how unlike her!"

"No way- Shadow? Really?" Fluttershy eyebrows raised, she started to wonder why Twilight would ditch her and Tails plans for a morning out with Shadow.

"Yea, according to Spike they left early this morning." Pinkamena paused for a short moment before thinking about another shocking event today. Suddenly her eyes lit up like the Canterlot skyline "OH! Did you know that Spike and Sweetie Bell are dating!?" Pinkie Pie had a large endearing smile on. "Younnng Loooove…" She finished in a sing-song voice, fluttering her eyelashes as she did.

Fluttershy giggled, "At least he finally gave up on trying hooking up with Rarity."

Pinkie Pie snorted, "Yeah I'd say he dodged a bullet there!" Fluttershy laughed and playfully shoved Pinkie Pie.

After the two finished giggling Pinkie Pie then turned to Tails but kept her conversation with Fluttershy, "Does he know that Twilight skipped their plans?" Pinkie looked sympathetic, "You know, to hang with another guy?"

"Mm Mm" she shook her head, "I don't suppose it matters anymore really." She admired Tails' look of focus as he used a socket ratchet to unbolt a couple of parts.

"Hey Fluttershy, can you come here for a second?" Tails called out as he held two replacement parts in his hands, his gloves already dirtied by grease and graphite.

"Coming!" Fluttershy called back to him, her face brightening up with a smile. "Hey, I'll catch you later, okay?" Fluttershy said to happily to Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie looked to Tails, to Fluttershy, then to Tails again, and back to Fluttershy, a wise, simper smile on her face. Fluttershy sweated slightly as her friend's eyes seemed to imply that she knew she had the hots for Tails, but instead of prying further, Pinkie demeanor changed in under a microsecond as she exclaimed "Okie Dokie Lokie!" and then hopped backwards into her truck and drove out and down the road in reverse.

/-/-/-/-/

Throughout the dragging workday Rainbow Dash kept the thoughts regarding a certain blue hedgehog from emerging in her mind to interrupt her work and mood. During the morning she and her weather team planned the forecast for today and the rest of the week. They charted possible weather patterns to execute to keep the weather nice yet drop some precipitation to water the thirsty ground below. Towards 3:00 pm the Ponyville Weather Patrol started to put out some small Cumulus clouds strategically above the town for the clouds to later grow into full fledge cumulonimbus clouds (thunderstorm cloud formations) for some much needed rain.

"Hey Rainbow Dash!" a pale, lilac colored pegasus called out to her coworker as Flitter, Fleetfoot, and herself were relaxing on a cloud since they only had one more quadrant to fill for the day and they were all ahead of schedule.

"Yeah?" Rainbow Dash spoke up.

"Fleetfoot, Flitter, and I are going to head back- you mind taking care of the last cloud here?" Cloudchaser asked, she was the pale lilac pegasus as before mentioned.

"Yeah… sure, no problem." Rainbow Dash shrugged, agreeing hesitantly.

"Alright! Thanks Dash!" The trio then flew back to the weather patrol center to clock out while Rainbow Dash pumped her wings as she pushed the last cumulus cloud towards the edges of Ponyville towards Canterlot.

Rainbow Dash flew in silence as she allowed her mind, for the first time today, to revolve around the lithe image of Sonic the Hedgehog. She recalled his spirited voice and his fetching, hot image. She recalled his attitude and his boisterous demand for speed. She then recalled his racing techniques and the awesome sounding hyper car and… for some reason… she couldn't almost discern her daydreams between real life because in reality she heard a loud screech of tires then an unmistakable high pitch whinny of over a thousand horses revving.

Looking down she could see Sonic's car with police modifications that was currently in hot pursuit of a ratrod on the country roads heading south. _Woah… I never seen Sonic on a job before. _Sonic's supercar bounced over the harsh bumpy roads while the higher sitting ratrod rode over them unfazed. The ratrod had some serious power too, she could tell as its big tires spat out major dirt and dust and the air seemed to vibrate as it roared down the road.

Focusing more on the rat rod she recognized the insignia on the side of the car. She gasped as realization hit her like a sledgehammer against the skull, she knew Sonic is going to be in some serious trouble.

/-/-/-/-/

_Damn… I can't even get close to this guy, no matter how much powerful my car is these roads won't allow me to get too fast or I'll definitely find myself in a ditch. This is way past uncool. _Sonic gritted his teeth as he flicked on the outboard speakers. "Attention Lightening Wing, pull over now! You and your gang are wanted for capital offenses of robbery, embezzlement, and countless counts of harassment and illegal gambling as stated in Canterlot's Decree of Civilians under criminal-" Sonic yelled into the microphone of his headset that exclaimed his cry over outboard speakers, but he was soon interrupted by gunshots being fired.

"Oh shut up with that legal crap!" The griffin in the fleeing car open fired an unknown firearm outside of the window at Sonic's pursuing police car. Lightning smirked ugly as Sonic gasped and swerved sharply, his green eyes wide with shock. After regaining his composure Sonic shook his head and donned a face more serious than cancer since he didn't know Equestria even had firearms, this is the first time he seen one here, this also meant that he would have to be a hundred times more careful.

Sonic frowned as he realized how much ground he lost by trying to avoid the gunfire and fought against the rough terrain to catch back up with him. "Besides you're too slow RAT! You can't possibly catch me with that over decorated toy!" Lightning Wing sneered at him. _He sure is persistent, good thing I didn't lead him North towards Manehattan that would had ruined our plans for sure. _Lightning Wing thought to himself.

_SLOW?! _Sonic gritted his teeth out of sheer irritation; nobody calls him slow- _especially_ no one calls him a RAT!

Sonic then started to press the pedal to the floor, ignoring the harsh ground below. Sonic shifted and steered past dead trees and large rocks. His car bounced and hiccupped over the rough terrain before his car instantly closed the gap between the two cars. Sonic smirked and flicked the microphone on again, "What was that? You said I was too slow?" The gangster in the car in front of him scowled with annoyance and pulled out the firearm again and sprayed a flurry of bullets at Sonic behind him.

Sonic dunked instinctively in the car as the bullets whizzed by his car, a couple hitting the windshield and one hitting his side mirror, shredding it off. Sonic growled as he observed the damage done to his car and started to fume, he shifted his car and it launched forward slamming into the back of the rat rod. Sonic grinned in satisfaction as he sent the thug fishtailing for a couple of seconds before Lightning Wing corrected himself. Lightning Wing roared in anger and then mashing hard on the accelerator; long tongues of fire coming from its huge, turned up exhaust pipes when he did.

/-/-/-/

Rainbow Dash saw that they were accelerating even faster now so she quickly ditched hiding inside of the heavy cumulus cloud and decided to follow without cover, but staying high enough so she wouldn't get caught, thanks to her cyan fur she blended well against the beautiful sky. _Sonic… Please be careful… that guy is very dangerous. _Rainbow Dash felt a huge surge of worry from deep within her belly as Sonic chased down the gangster. _But this is Sonic I'm talking about, I'm sure he is fine-_

Just as she was thinking she heard a flurry of high-pitched explosions coming from below, he eyes widened as she wondered what were those sounds. _What in the unholy pits of Tartarus was that?!_ She then got out her phone quickly and decided to warn Tails of what was happening to Sonic but unfortunately she was out of cell tower range.

"Dammit!" Rainbow Dash growled in frustration. _I don't know why, but I can feel it, Sonic's in dire trouble, and I'm the only one who can help him… _She gulped as she looked forward to at least get a sense of where the gangster was leading Sonic. Her mouth gaped in horror as she realized where they were heading.

_SONIC!_

/-/-/-/-/

"Is there something the matter, Shadow?"

Twilight asked since all of a sudden Shadow zoned out as though he was looking into his own mind. The two were relaxing in a crystal cool lake inside a massive, pool size flower deep within the Everfree Forest after their whole day of exploring and teaching each other of information. Twilight taught Shadow about the elements and about whatever questions he had about this world, and in return Shadow taught her about the chaos emeralds and chaotic powers.

"Shadow?" Twilight repeated since Shadow was staring off into space. The ultimate life form shook his head briskly for a second before looking back at her. He felt as though he was losing energy at an alarming rate like if he was being drained.

"What's wrong? Is something bothering you?" Twilight asked again more concerned as his attitude changed from relaxed to a sort of hidden haste. She turned her body towards him, and reached out to him but he moved his arm away and started wading to the other side of the large, velvety petals.

"It's…" Shadow paused again as though he lost his train of thought, but soon it returned and he shook his head again. "It's nothing. I- I think it may be time to go back." He said absentmindedly as he climbed out of the pool uncharacteristically clumsily and without warning started to head back where they came. Twilight slowly got out of the crystal clear lake with a sigh, and quickly got her stuff and followed him while trying to put her clothes back on. Her mind wondered what in the world was causing Shadow's mood to change all of a sudden… especially when she was so close to him now...

As Shadow trudged along through the Everfree forest, with shirt held loosely in hand, he thought about what was that bad vibe he was getting. _Someone's in danger… no… it's more specific than that- an embodiment of chaos is in danger. _Shadow could only think of another being on this planet that uses chaos like himself... _Great, what have you gotten yourself into this time Sonic? _Shadow growled to himself as he felt an absurd amount of ambiguity, terror, and a sense of apprehension although nothing was in sight that would convey such emotions.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

**Hey reader! Thank you for reading yet another chappie! I would love to give a BIG thank you to Inkwell Lynx, XxCloudpuffxX, and piscesandsnow! Thank you so, so much for favoriting!**

**Thank you Piscesandsnow for the awesome review btw!**

**Lmao! Yes I do exist Inkwell xD haha, sorry I had some crazy bad writers block for Discorded Relapse, just because I have been stuck on what to do with Applejack and Rarity. I kinda got Applejack situation down pack but I'm still working out the kinks! Haha so that's why I been away lol. And yes I also enjoyed writing Sonic and Amy being super close pals.**

**And Thank you Rarity121 ! I'm excited for Discorded Relapse too! X) once I get to writing it again ugh lols.**

**LOL and Thanks werewof99! I do say, I think I had the ultimate pleasure of having you read my stories ever since I started . thanks a bunch!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Welcome back, Reader. I will like to announce that there will be cussing in this chapter, if it seems ooc or inappropriate I do apologize. Now, let's return to the story, shall we?**

**[30 minutes later: 3:30 pm]**

Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Knuckles and Tails were relaxing in the outdoor area of Sugar Cube Corner talking and joking amongst them as great friends do, but unbeknownst to them all their moment their peace would be destroyed today.

"Heh, imma let you off the hook this time Tails, just so you know though for future reference, you can never beat my truck." Knuckles were saying to Tails, Tails smirked and crossed his arms.

"Oh that's very kind of you- but just so you know Fluttershy and I was tuning up my hot rod- I call it the fox rod by the way, all this morning and next time you won't be so lucky when I challenge you to a race!" Tails boasted proudly, beside him Fluttershy smiled as she looked into her lap, her fingers intertwined with each other. _Today couldn't have been better… _

_[Flashback]_

"_Wow Fluttershy! That was some real impeccable work you did there- I guess you were right about having a lot about you that I didn't know about. I didn't think you could do that so efficiently especially after I only showed you how to do it once."Tails proudly complimented her work with his foxrod. Fluttershy beamed with his praise, Tails stuck his fist out to her and they both brofist. _

_-Half an hour later-_

"_We make a pretty awesome team, don't you think?" Tails said to her as they both sat in the trunk of Fluttershy's car enjoying some soothing music and some pink lemonade Tails prepared. _

_In Fluttershy's mind there were fireworks exploding with beautiful hues creating a mood she only felt before when she was with her animals: amorous and at perfect harmony. She looked at Tails from the side- his handsome features enchanting her; she could stare at him forever. His smile made her heart leap around, frolicking in the beautiful flowers of happiness within her mind. His three long cowlicks that stood from his head were too cute. Everything about him from his interior to his exterior was of perfect substance that would make any woman excited. _

"_We sure are…" She finally breathed out in a dreamy sigh; she then realized how dreamy it sounded so to cover it up she playfully punched his arm with her little fist. "Still can't believe you didn't think that I could drift…" _

_Tails laughed then gently nudged her back. "Oh yeah, well at first I thought you were like some eco-warrior, goody two shoes that wouldn't speed around like that... 'fraid you might hurt some ants?" He chuckled, joking with her. _

_Fluttershy narrowed her eyes. "Oh yeah! Well I thought you were just a head in the book geek with no artsy talent." _

_The two were silent for a couple of seconds, because to some extent what they both playfully said was kind of true. _

"_Did I just cross the line? Was that too close to home? Why isn't he saying anything? Did I just screw up? Oh Great Celestia..." Fluttershy feverishly thought in her head. She was about to apologize until she heard a chuckle from beside her. She looked to her left to see Tails chuckling while trying to sip on his drink. Fluttershy looked at him with confused eyes until she joined in his bout of chuckling which then escalated into full fledged laughter. _

"_You know, you are a pretty cool chick, Fluttershy." He finally said after his laughter. _

_[End of Flashback]_

"You're on!" Tails proclaimed as he and Knuckles grasped hands in a handshake.

While reliving today's moments Fluttershy had completely missed out on another hopeless bet Tails and Knuckles just engaged in. Rarity was rolling her eyes so it must have been mindless as ever.

Applejack looked around then furrowed her eyebrows. "Uh, have anyone seen Twi around?"

"Yeah, and what happened to Sonic and Shadow? Sonic should have came back from work an hour ago at least." Knuckles spoke up with Applejack beside him nodding her head in agreement.

Pinkie Pie frowned, Shadow and Twilight had been gone for quite a long time now… her mind couldn't help but think of all the secular activities that could had gone about with the two. She tried to clear her head but it was as though the sheer thought about Twilight being alone and having her way with Shadow within the secluded areas of the Everfree forest were mocking her feelings. The image of it kept nagging Pinkie Pie and soon she became visibly irritable about it. But why should she? She has no control over what Shadow does in his free time, and she has no right to know what Shadow and Twilight does in their alone time. She wasn't Shadow's girlfriend, nor was she his mother, so why should she be bothered about what they do. She decided it was best to try not to think about it any longer, but that didn't stop her irritability, not by a long shot.

Tails was thoughtful for a second, "Maybe it's just a coincidence that they are both away at the same time." Referring to Shadow and Twilight, "Maybe she is on Princess duties- oh and someone remind me why a nation needs three princesses? Like really?" Tails crossed his arms getting off topic about their missing friends.

Rarity only looked at Knuckles as the red echidna tried to make sense on the matter. "Oh don't think about it too hard, _Knuckie, _you're only going to hurt yourself." She playfully teased him, using a pet name that NO ONE saw coming. Applejack shot a glance at her but was unnoticed by the fashion queen. The rest of the friends laughed as Knuckles shot a glare at her, and instinctively retorted.

"Oh don't give me any smack you _bat_\- uh, I mean pony!" Knuckles yelled at her, Applejack chuckled and leaned slightly on his muscular arm. Knuckles folded his arms for while he got quiet as Tails continued to speak, although he kept an eye on Rarity for some reason he didn't (or couldn't) understand yet.

"I read that Princess Celestia is the Princess of the Day, basically, and Princess Luna; the princess of the Night. So, what does that make Twilight? The princess of the twilight- the time of day after the sunset but before the night takes place?" Tails inquired but was interrupted just as Fluttershy was about to answer him by a two figures walking towards them in a brisk pace.

Pinkie Pie looked behind herself for a quick moment and instantly recognized the upturned quills in the distance. Her heart leapt with joy as finally Shadow has returned.

As the figures finally reached them Pinkie Pie could have scowled what she saw; not at Shadow of course, but the pretty lady following him.

Shadow, in all his glory was shirtless with a few droplets of water clinging to his quills; his jeans were a bit wet at the top as though he pulled them over wet swimming trunks. Close behind him was Twilight wearing a short sleeve white button up short that was unbuttoned showing a bikini top and her flat stomach while for bottoms she had denim short shorts that were unbuttoned showing her bikini bottoms.

Pinkie Pie fumed with anger and jealously and sadness and quickly snapped her head back in front and pretended to mess with her phone before anyone noticed her distraught composure.

"Tails, Knuckles, where's Sonic?" Shadow demanded in a firm tone, the smiles from his friend's faces disappeared as they heard the urgency in his voice.

Tails grew worried quickly, "Sonic? Sonic hasn't returned from call- is there something wrong Shadow?" He rose from his seat, ready to spring into action if needed.

Shadow looked at all of the folks around him and frowned then instantly Tails walked away from the group, followed by Knuckles, as though he had received a telepathic message from Shadow saying 'let's talk away from here'.

After walking a good fifty feet from the ladies Shadow spoke up again. "I can feel it within chaos, Sonic's in trouble; I can feel it- danger is coming."

"Wait- you can feel if Sonic is in trouble by the chaotic powers of the master emerald?" Tails was looking extremely puzzled as he thought about it.

"Yes. And it's growing by the second as though the danger is imminent." Shadow confirmed.

"Oh no… Sonic…." Tails started to whimper.

"We gotta do something about it! Come on, let's search for him!" Knuckles exclaimed bravely. The girls even though they were farther apart heard Knuckles exclaim and grew even more curious to what was being discussed.

**[Break]**

Pinkie Pie was pressing random buttons on her phone as Rarity spoke up to Twilight. "Soooo, where were you all morning huh? Had some outdoor fun-fun with Shadow?" Rarity giggled. Applejack smiled as she watched the blush form on her friend's face.

"Oooh she's blushing! So that's a yes then?" Rarity pressed, now more intrigued in what Twilight and Shadow was doing the whole time alone.

Twilight nervously chuckled, "No, no, no, it wasn't anything like _that_… he just wanted to see the Tree of Harmony, so I took him out this morning to show him."

_That's all, then why it takes like a million hours for you to come back?! _Pinkie pie thought.

Fluttershy grinned, "So that took all day?"

"I- I well, no, we were done about around 10 o'clock… but then we went to explore Celestia's and Luna's old castle, then we talked about some pretty interesting stuff while sitting in a lush tree; you will not believe how comfortable it is! And then after that we relaxed in a nice, cool lake." Twilight listed the various activities, much to her friend's curiosity.

"Sounds like ah first date tah me!" Applejack proclaimed with her arms folded looking at Twilight with a big grin.

Pinkie Pie's mood plummeted with chagrin when she heard the word date.

Twilight chuckled again, "I wish…" she said under her breath, but more loudly she said, "It wasn't really a date-" She was interrupted by Pinkie Pie who finally shot a glare at her.

"It had better not be." Pinkie Pie growled.

Fluttershy and Rarity stared at her Pinkie Pie with a 'omg did she just say that' face while Applejack's eyebrows raised with surprise, while Twilight on the other hand just stared in surprise and wondering if Pinkie Pie just challenged her.

**[Break]**

Sonic's car proved inadequate to be driven on such roads as it bounced roughly against the harsh grounds- if it weren't for Sonic's specially made, titanium alloy undercarriage he would be a sitting duck right now.

As if luck was on his side the ratrod finally started to smoke in the engine compartment and Sonic could tell exactly what had happened. _Transmission just died! That idiot should have known driving manual off-road isn't as easy as driving manual on the street! This is my chance! _But Sonic should have known that the gangster ahead of him weren't the guy to be messing with because as if in slow motion the rat rod drifted so the driver side was perpendicular to Sonic's car. And slowly Sonic saw something that looked like a cylinder being aimed towards him. Sonic's emerald green eyes widened as he cursed under his breath, he then unbuckled himself like a flash, opened his door, and tucked into a ball and rolled out of the way.

Not even a second later the sound of an ear deafening explosion hit Sonic like a monstrous wave. Sonic pulled his ears down on the top of his head as the ear splitting explosion rang from just about 20 feet from him.

After a couple of seconds of his face being on the dusty soil Sonic finally looked up to see his smoking car smashing into the ratrod and going off the side of the gorge a hundred feet away. _What was that… a rocket launcher- RPG maybe? Did he just fire a RPG at me?_

Seconds later he stood up shakily as various smoking pieces of car parts were raining down around the area where Sonic stood. He breathed deeply, _that was almost me there…_ Sonic didn't see the gangster around either so he figured he had gone down with the wreckage. He reached his hand into his pocket and checked the walkie-talkie, microphone and camera battery life as he was about to document what happened here for the legal matters but was interrupted by someone unexpectedly.

"SONIC!"

Sonic whipped his head around trying to locate the sound before someone with rainbow colored hair landed hard beside him. "Dashie?!" Shocked, his mouth dropped and his eyes widened when he saw Rainbow Dash swoop down beside him. "What are you doing here?"

Rainbow Dash ignored him and began to scour his body with worried, caring eyes, checking for any injuries. "Are you okay Sonic!?" Her voice was distressed, "I heard the small explosions then I saw that guy fire some weird magic at you which annihilated your car- I almost thought you were caught in it- It freaked me out!" she embraced Sonic in a relieved hug, her heart seemed to have been lifted some to see that he was okay; her heart and mind saved from the scary abyss that was her fear of Sonic being killed in that.

Sonic embraced her back chuckling lightly, "Yeah I'm okay-"

**BANG**

**[Break]**

"Alright let's set out right now, I can track Sonic's car using my phone." Tails said as he brought out his super-smart-phone out of his pocket and starting to meddle with it. Tails opened up the tracking software for his car and saw that was taking damage by the diagnostics it was sending to Tails.

"LOOK! SONIC WAS IN TROUBLE!" Shadow and Knuckles observed the damage data done to Sonic's car. The application showed that Sonic was heading south at 100 miles per hour on dirt road.

"What is Sonic thinking driving like that on a dirt road with a car like that?" Shadow exclaimed. The application also showed that his fuel levels were depleting, but still good; the tires were deteriorating but at the moment still good.

"Can we get a visual?" Shadow asked.

Tails nodded, "Sure…thing?" he went to the section that was labeled 'visual/audio', the audio worked fine but the video feed was down. Sonic's car could be heard as it banged against rocks on the road, Tails could just hear the stress of the suspension of the car was going through as it road on that type of road.

Shadow was sweating now, that imminent danger he felt earlier grew stronger and stronger as he watched the static video feed and listened as Sonic's car raced behind what sounded like another car. He could feel it like how someone can feel that someone is watching them from the shadows with evil intent. Shadow clenched his fists in anticipation. _We need to save Sonic now! This feeling is getting unbearable!_

"_Oh Shit…" _the three friends heard Sonic curse under his breath with apprehension. They then heard a flurry of motions; a click, and then the door opening. But that didn't alarm them as much as the final sound the microphone picked up not even a second later. A sound of the initial blast of a massive explosion ruptured from the speakers then the audio feed started to buzz as well. The three friends jaw dropped as a cold sweat dropped from their faces.

"Sonic…?" Tails whimpered out. The diagnostics of the car all read 'no signal'. The girls must have heard the explosion as they all started to jog over to the three friends. Shadow didn't know what to think now. Knuckles just stared at the screen waiting for something to happen.

"What's going on, what was that explosion?" Twilight called out as she jogged to Shadow's side. Pinkie joined Shadow on the other side of him.

"Tails?" Fluttershy gently said his name and put a comforting hand on his arm, she could feel that he was shaking. His eyes were glued to the screen. Shadow noticed Tails' sorrowing mood and put a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Don't think like that- Sonic isn't dead." Shadow reassured him in a deep voice. The rest of the mane6's eyes widened when they heard what Shadow said. But within Shadow's mind he didn't know how true his words will be for the pending danger he felt was stronger now than ever before.

Then suddenly…

Shadow groaned in pain as he clutched his chest. Shadow's eyes widened with pain and horror, the pain ripped through him like a gunshot. Pinkie Pie and Twilight instantly cried his name in fear as Shadow stared down at the ground trying to make sense of all of this while cussing under his breath trying to alleviate the pain.

All sound was a blur and his sight became deafened. Tails grasped his dark friend's shoulder trying to find out what was wrong with him as the other girls around them stared in fear, unknowing to what force has caused Shadow so much pain- the hedgehog mind you, that can obliterate anything, withstood the fall from the Ark, brushed off many gunshot wounds and blasts of all types of lasers and warfare and walk away from it as though nothing had happened.

_Sonic… S-Sonic what the hell…is happening? _Shadow thought to himself.

**[Break]**

Rainbow Dash's eyes wavered with horror.

Sonic's eyes stared blankly past Rainbow dash, his embrace on Rainbow Dash faltering as his grip became loose. His body shook as pain shot through his body; his heart faltered a beat as he felt dizziness tried to claim sovereignty on his mind. Sonic and Rainbow Dash looked down in horror; their eyes dilating in consternation as they watched a pool of blood begin to form around Sonic's heart.

Rainbow Dash searched Sonic's face, her mouth trembling, seemingly unable to make the words she wanted to say. She looked pass Sonic to the culprit of harming Sonic; that gangster- that vile, **HENIEOUS** gangster did this!

Sonic turned around with painful movements and stared with venom in his eyes at the gangster. Lightening Wing watched Sonic struggle with an amused smirk on his face as he held the gun in his hand; the griffin's wings were erect to make himself look bigger.

"Y-You bastard…" Sonic started, "You, coward… trash-" Sonic coughed up a little blood as the hole in his chest started to bleed more profusely. "You- You could of hit R-rainb- dash." He spat out.

Rainbow Dash was staring in pure fear. Never have she seen a weapon that could kill from such a distance, never before have she ever seen someone as hurt as Sonic is now. _That shot… that shot his heart, I saw it… how, and how is Sonic still standing? _

"Rainbow, please, get out of here now!" Sonic struggled to get out.

"No- I, Sonic..."

"**DO NOT ARGUE**!" Sonic looked back at her with an angry snarl, "I do not want you to die here, not on my watch! Please! I care about you so please leave and save yourself!"

"I care about you too! I am not going anywhere! I'm not gonna leave you here alone like this!" Rainbow Dash shouted back defiantly.

"You are one interesting hedgehog- your reputation precedes you sir!" the cocky gangster spoke loudly and ended with a chuckle. "I shot you dead in the chest and yet you can still stand!" The gangster was making very dramatic arm and hand movements as he spoke. "This is astonishing! He smirked, "But I would care more about you than your rainbow bitch there." With that the LW loosely pointed the firearm at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash stared at the gun fearfully, her heartbeat beating as quickly as though it were trying to beat out of her chest. Her eyes dilated in horror as she pictured herself being shot down just as Sonic was. _Is this where I die? Sonic… There's so much I wanted to tell you… I- _

"Don't you **DARE** point that gun towards her, you **shit**!" Sonic growled with such viciousness that even LW had to step back. Sonic moved in front of her protectively, his spines and fur sticking out slightly in anger, his teeth bared, blood starting to ooze from his mouth and staining his teeth as he shouted.

Although Sonic was bravely protecting Rainbow Dash she could hear that his breath was much labored and that he could easily use up the rest of his energy- possibly die if he continued. She almost stopped him until LW started to laugh.

Taken aback LW pointed his gun back at Sonic, "And if I do?" he sneered.

"THEN I'LL **KILL** YOU!" Sonic, even through the pain sprinted forwards at LW at full speed, surprising LW, then giving him a nasty punch in the left eye which sent LW reeling back like a rocket with the force of Sonic's punch. The gangster tumbled backwards until he grasped the hard ground his talons stopping himself just before he fell off the edge of the ledge again.

The gangster held his cries of pain within himself, not gonna show Sonic that he bout damn near shattered his skull with that hit. His eye was shut but blood poured profusely from it, as did the whole left side of his face.

_You risked yourself to save me? _Rainbow Dash felt as though a fire was lit in her belly along with the sorry and the fear. She can't let this happen, she is NOT gonna let Sonic die here today, she is not gonna let this man kill him… This cannot happen! I am not going to leave! I am not going to flee! I will stay here till my last breath! I will not leave this land without telling you the truth Sonic!

"SONIC! STOP I CAN HANDLE HIM! YOU'RE GONNA KILL YOURSELF IF YOU KEEP EXERTING YOURSELF LIKE THAT! PLEASE LISTEN TO ME! PLEASE!" Rainbow Dash's voice cracked as she screamed for him to stop.

Blood poured even more profusely from his chest now as that attack took the rest of what he had. Sonic couldn't knock it anymore, he was dying. Cheap move that was for LW to shoot him through the back, if he were facing Sonic he would have dodged it no problem. Sonic choked on his breath and held his hand over his heart. _I can't believe this… I'm gonna die out here, I'm gonna die… this is not cool, not cool not one bit. Amy… Tails… knuckles… Shadow… my friends… I'm so, I'm so sorry. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Twilight… I'm sorry… I failed._

"You should have listened to your bitch, Sonic."

Without warning he shot off three more shots at the hedgehog, two of them making its mark in his left side of his chest, and the other grazed his arm. Sonic felt darkness wash over him as he refused to fall. Sonic held there for a few seconds, holding a defiant snarl at Lightening Wing. Finally slowly he did fall, into his own pool of blood.

LW smiled as much of a smile as he could before something punched him hard in the gut, sending him soaring into the air like a rocket, his wings flailing to right himself as he tumbled. From below LW could see a rainbow colored missile flying up towards him. He swung his foot down in a powerful axe kick which was dodged with finesse by Rainbow Dash as she flew up to grab him then lifting her knee to strike him deep into the gut.

LW exhaled painfully as all the air got snatched out of his lungs. Fire burned as powerful as a waterfall in her being as her mind relived the shot to Sonic's chest_. This man did this. This man, no- not a man, this __**filth**__\- hurt Sonic. And for that he will pay, I will make sure he pays! _

"You're going down for this!" Rainbow Dash spat in his face as she powerfully pumped her wings into the air, taking them both high into the air, above any clouds, so high that the ground was merely a drawing of shapes and colors. Rainbow Dash then head butted LW **HARD**; so hard in fact that her own head started to bleed along with his. "FOR THIS YOU ARE GOING TO PAY!" She screamed in his face in complete and utter emotional agony.

Rainbow Dash then dived towards the ground with such a great velocity that she quickly hit the speed barrier with no problem. Shockwaves of color danced away from her as if afraid of her own anger and woe that seemed to radiate off of her. LW then struggled from her grasp, trying to break free but she held tight as she came down upon the earth like a nuclear missile. And like a nuclear missile a massive multicolor mushroom cloud expelled from her attack and rose into the sky, vaporizing every possible cloud in sight.

As the dust dissipated Rainbow Dash finally let go of the still Lightening Wing and rose from the deep crater she punched into the ground with Lightening Wing's body and without missing a beat quickly flew over to where Sonic was laying at.

Tears finally streamed from her eyes as she picked up Sonic's head from the ground desperately hoping that he would wake up. Her heart could be heard pounding as she listened for a heart beat but there was none and that horrified her very soul. She looked off into the distance where Ponyville resides and with a massive burst of speed, that took energy that she did not have, rocketed towards Ponyville with Sonic in her arms.

_I never got to tell him… _

**[End of chapter]**

**Gosh! I am popping out chapters like a pez dispenser; just tip my head back and here comes a chapter! Haha, but hey thank you reader for reading yet another awesome chapter. I know this chapter was a bit depressing maybe but it gets better after this, I just needed to work out this small part. Anyways, REVIEW! Seriously, that is the reason why I put out 3 chapters in like 4 days! If only I could do this to Discorded Relapse (it's a good story btw if you haven't read it. You can read it on my account right now new guy!) **

**But um oh yeah, **

**THANK YOU THATDUDETHERE789 FOR FAVORITING AND FOLLOWING AND REVIEWING! Welcome aboard, friend! **** I see you also have a MLP/Sonic fan fiction and I will be sure to read that as soon as I can! **

**Thank you ChristainApe99! You are awesome! **

**And of course thank YOU Inkwell Lynx! You make my day whenever I post a new chappie for any of my stories. Haha if only I could update my other stories like I do this one lol. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Welcome back new and old readers. **

**Please note that the projects done here are totally fictional and you should never use the techniques depicted to try and resuscitate someone's heart. **

**You could seriously explode someone. **

**But since Sonic characters are fictional, it is **_**totally**_** okay. **

**Also I would like to point out that things get kinda 'out of canon' towards the end. Don't worry about it though, I make it work. **

**Please enjoy.**

Everything was a soft blur around the Ultimate Life Form as he struggled to stand up taller, pushing away the excruciating pain that throbbed and rippled from the center of his chest. He could feel his energy dispensing from his body as though he was engaging in a life or death situation battle with a worthy opponent. But the only opponent now was his own body as he fought to regain control over his dimming senses. He could see the beclouded visions of Tails waving his hand in front of his face and the distraught faces of Pinkie and Twilight desperately calling to him. _They're crying… What type of hero lets a maiden cry, what type of man will I be- what Ultimate Life Form am I if I can't overcome this? Come on, fight this, fight it, you cannot lose! Fight it! FIGHT IT! _

Just as he thought he had a grip on it Shadow then felt an immense surge of energy draining from him in a quick burst as though he ran through the sound barrier. And back to the ground Shadow fell. Shadow moaned with pain as he felt his body hex him to the extent of his wits. With his teeth clenched he hissed with pain and frustration as he tried desperately to stand back up. Around him he could hear the screams and the cries and the scared sounds of pleading for him to get back up, for an explanation, for a reason why Shadow was being hurt so badly.

It took literally the rest of the energy Shadow had to stand back up but then… in that very moment… he felt the connection to Sonic being cut drastically...

_Sonic… what happened…? _

To his friend's dismay Shadow eyes slowly rolled back as he fell backwards slowly, the world becoming a dark expanse of nothingness, fitting for a dying man.

"SHADOW!" cried his friends, Pinkie Pie fell to her knees as she desperately tried to shake him out of it, her tears falling onto the ground and his face occasionally. Pinkie Pie cries grew ever so louder as her hair instantly deflated from its usual perkiness, pooling around her and Shadow's quills as she pleaded for this all to just be a horrible prank. Tails rushed to the ground and put his left ear over Shadow's chest to check for the obvious. Everything became silent, even Pinkie Pie held her sobbing momentarily as Tails listened closely for a heartbeat.

To what seemed like an eternity in a cold, asphyxiating purgatory Tails bit his lip for he not dared for his lip to start trembling now as a show of weakness in this situation, he slowly lifted his head off Shadow's chest, his face being searched desperately by Twilight and Pinkie Pie for any trace of good news; for any faint slice of hope- there were none.

"No…no, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO! Shadow! NO! PLEASE! SHADOW! WAKE UP!" Pinkie Pie choked out as she descended onto Shadow once more. Pinkie completely lost it as she started shaking him harder now; she tried everything within her possible abilities to resuscitate her fallen friend. Pinkie sobbed a pitiful bout of screaming and crying and she refused to let go.

"SHADOW!" she repeatedly screamed out his name and Tails turned his head away from the sight of everyone else, knowing the worst had come. If Shadow was correct in saying that he felt connected to Sonic through the power of chaos, then if Shadow has fell… that could only mean Sonic had to too. Tails quietly cried in the crook of his arm for his beloved friend; his brother, his idol and his role model. Although he wanted to break down into sobs for his best friend he knew he had to stay strong. Tails wiped his eyes and clenched his fists as he stood tall trying not to scare his friends anymore than they were already.

With all the crying and screaming they had gained a pretty big audience around them. Multiple people with all types of colors gathered around the group of crying friends. Wondering what was all the commotion about. Some were recording on their camera phones and some that were in the middle of calls stared slack jawed as they saw Shadow laying on the ground motionless with the Party Pony sobbing over him and Princess Twilight sitting down across of Shadow sobbing to herself unable to bring herself to look at Shadow. Knuckles didn't know what to do as he started to fume; _whoever did this will pay with their lives…_ Knuckles then grew absolutely angry as he looked around himself to find the audience getting closer.

The red echidna scowled with and clenched his fist. "WHAT ARE YOU ALL LOOKING AT!? DAMN! CANT YOU SEE SOEMTHING TERRIBLE HAS-" his angry rant at the people around him got cut off as a deep explosion rumbled the ground and instantly his head snapped towards the sound.

Unbelievably a expansive corona of the light spectrum spread across the sky maybe 100 miles away from here due south. Tails and the rest of the girls looked up for a second save for Pinkie Pie as the magical colors spread across the sky like a ripple until they dissipated. Fluttershy wiped the tears from her eyes as she knew the only person that could do that so flawlessly- Rainbow Dash.

"Rainbow Dash…?" Applejack murmured to herself.

"What the-" Tails breathed out in awe as he watched the colors fade away, and not a second later were there a extremely bright flash of light followed by a even bigger explosion that rumbled the ground like a bomb. A massive warhead must have caused the unimaginably large mushroom cloud of color that plumed up towards the heavens; punching through the sky. A small shockwave shook the ground soon after the cloud was formed.

After the dust has cleared the crowd of spectators muttered to themselves in confusion and fear as many didn't know what was happening; first a mysterious apparent 'death' of the Ultimate Life Form, now this massive nuclear looking, multicolor mushroom clouds was lingering over Ponyville like an elephant over rats.

Tails couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on now but his mind then snapped back to more pressing matters; Shadow. _Stop panicking, you are the smartest and calmest person here, you need to take charge and fix the issues at hand. Sonic will have to wait, no more interruptions. Now, first things first, we need to resuscitate Shadow- CPR. _Tails took a deep breath and put on a determined expression. He stalked over to Shadow, "Do you know how to perform CPR?" he asked firmly to Pinkie Pie who seemingly ignored his question, Twilight looked up to Tails with a sad look.

"I do…" Twilight spoke up softly.

"Good, resuscitate Shadow please. Knuckles! Remove Pinkie Pie please." Twilight nodded to his request and Knuckles, snapping out of his frustration walked over and pried Pinkie Pie off of Shadow.

"Wha- No, Shadow- Let me go!" she screamed

Pinkie pie grunted in surprise as she realized that it was Knuckles holding her back from Shadow, "H-Hey get off of me! Put me down! I need to be with Shadow! PUT ME DOWN!" Pinkie Pie struggled in his strong grip as she tried to squirm to return to Shadow's side which was quickly taken by Twilight who leaned over Shadow and started to give him chest compressions. Pinkie stared with a blank face that slowly dissolved into utter self resentment that she hasn't thought about it earlier. Tails looked back to Pinkie Pie seeing the change in expression she had so he walked over to her.

"Don't blame yourself Pinkie Pie." Tails said gently putting a hand on her shoulder; Pinkie Pie could only stare at the ground lamentably as she hung limply in Knuckles grasp. Tails nodded a short nod to Knuckles and the echidna put her down gently. "You were in acute distress, I'm sure if it were someone else you would of thought about it sooner. We are going to save Shadow, what he needs right now is for you to be strong for him; we all need to be strong." _For Sonic too… Oh Sonic… _

Pinkie Pie then started to cry softly again, she put her big blue eyes on Tails which shocked him for a split second- he could see true emotions of love and dismay mingling within her blue depths. The type of eyes that glistened with the never ending amorous feelings and tears of someone's spouse passing; Pinkie Pie had those eyes, and it made Tails, oddly enough, smile at her. "Don't worry; I won't dare let him die on you, Pinkie Pie." Pinkie Pie tried to smile; her lips trembled with emotion as she tried to muster the strength to smile. Finally, there was that smile, that one smile that gave Tails the extra push to make sure he doesn't fail.

"Thank you." Pinkie Pie ushered out finally.

Tails then quickly rushed over to Fluttershy, "Give me your keys, please!" Fluttershy blinked a couple of times before giving it to him.

"What for-oh…" Fluttershy never got an answer as Tails rocketed back to where Knuckles was standing.

"Go and fetch me your jumper cables now- we don't have time to talk!" Knuckles nodded and ran to his truck to retrieve his jumper cables and rushed back to Tails just as he was parking Fluttershy's car next to Shadow.

Next to Shadow was Twilight and she was now starting to breathe into Shadow's lungs for the second time. Tails could tell that she was utterly distressed now and stressed to the point of breaking down again because even though she tried with all her heart and might Shadow wouldn't respond to the CPR. "T-Tails, I trying and I'm trying but nothing's working!" Twilight then started to cry again.

"Do not worry- Twilight its okay I'm going to try to resuscitatehim." Tails said as he popped the hood on Fluttershy's car and tinkering around with his screw driver.

"How?" She questioned him, sorrow heavy in her voice.

"By jump starting his heart…" he said deadpan. Fluttershy and the others slowly gravitated towards Tails to see what he was doing. His friends looked at him curiously as he tinkered. Fluttershy didn't say a word as Tails tinkered around unplugging a fuse, testing it quickly then plugging it back in then going deeper into the engine compartment before finding what he wanted. He then yanked out a small device out of the alternator and held it up for all to see.

"This is the voltage regulator, this regulates how much voltage the alternator puts out by limiting or escalating it due to the voltage needed." Tails then put the regulator in his pocket and started connecting the cables to the battery, "With the regulator in, I could never possibly reach the amount of voltage needed to resuscitate Shadow."

"You're gonna do it with a car?!" Rarity sounded completely shocked and doubtful while Applejack watched on worried that this might go wrongly.

"Yes, in fact I expect this will work well- we don't have time for an ambulance, Shadow has been knocked out for 4 minutes now! Any longer and he could suffer brain damages!" Tails replied to them, their attitudes about it; doubting him made him irritable. Tails then shook his head before searching around for a second before sprinting to Knuckles truck and seconds later he came back with two flat pieces of metal in his hand.

Tails then attached the two metal pieces to the cables and Knuckles was watching with confusion. "Wait- Tails… did you just take my gas and brake pedals off?"

"Yup"

"Aww I just got those too, you better put them back when you're done!" Knuckles whined

"Oh yeah sure-"

"Someone hop in there and start it up; Fluttershy?" he handed the keys to Fluttershy; she hopped into the car and put the key into the ignition, waiting for Tails' signal. Her heart raced, multiple questions rammed her mind. _Is this really going to work? It seems too farfetched to even work… But, Tails is counting on me, he chose me to carry this part of the mission out, he needs me. I need to have faith in his intellect! I trust you Tails!_

Tails held each cable wire by the rubber grips of the alligator clamps over his head, ready to zap Shadow back to life. He sweated, is this even going to work? Will this all be for nothing? The CPR didn't help, what makes this ludicrous science experiment work? _STOP! I can't be thinking like this! If I gave up- if I lost hope in this then that mean I would be losing hope in Sonic! AND I WILL NEVER LOSE HOPE IN SONIC! _

"Fluttershy! START IT UP!"

**[Break]**

Rainbow Dash made it half way to Ponyville before the excruciatingly painful cramps racked her wings forcing them to fold. Rainbow Dash then dropped out of the sky and hitting the soft ground below her. Exhaustion was starting to peck at her ever since she dropped the bomb on LW (quite literally). She spat with annoyance as her wings refused to give her anymore lift, even opening them were too painful to do.

Rainbow Dash punched the ground with anger and frustration, "Dammit!" she muttered angrily at herself, "Dammit, dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!" her tone of voice increasing by each utterance, "WHY AM I SO WEAK!" Rainbow Dash hung her head limply as she crouched on the ground, her eyes starting to tear up slowly, she could feel the heat in her face rise as she thought of the worse possible scenario; not being able to get Sonic to Ponyville in time for any possible help.

She can't fail, _I've already failed. _She can't give up, _I already given up. _This is not the end, _Sonic…. _Her thoughts contradicted themselves, she wanted to help Sonic, she wanted to help him- she will not leave his side for anything, NO MATTER WHAT.

She slowly crawled over to Sonic's side, pulling his cooling body closer to her. The blood had long ago stopped flowing since his heart had stopped 4 minutes ago. She knew that running to Ponyville with Sonic in tow would prove futile for he weighs a lot more than she thought as deadweight. And now with flying out of the question she was limited to one more decision.

CPR

She gulped in fear and uneasiness; she knew how to perform CPR since it is required by all Wonderbolt Trainees, and she has seen it be performed in her school and in public in the past, she even took a class to learn it. But she was scared to do it.

It was the what-if's that made her sick to her stomach with ambiguity; what if she couldn't save Sonic even if she performs the CPR? What if she messes up? What if she accidently hurt him more? She looked down at Sonic, his resting face; she has to do it. _For his sake as well as my own and his friends._

Rainbow Dash laid Sonic flat on the grass and lifted his chin up a little. "O-okay, first things first, check for breathing… right, not breathing." She sighed.

"N-next, chest compressions…" Rainbow Dash positioned her hands on the center of his chest, minding the gunshot wound, and started to compress firmly and quickly. As she did she kept her eyes closed, she couldn't bear watching Sonic like this anymore; lifeless, not laughing or smirking, not his usual self, and it really started to bum her out.

"N-now, mo-mouth to mouth…" Rainbow Dash shivered as she tilted his head back a bit more and slowly brought her lips to his. Her mind was drawing a blank; she didn't want her first lip to lip contact with Sonic to go down like this… Shaking off her fears she closed the gap between their mouths. Instantly a chill went up her spine as Sonic's cold lips touched hers, sadness washed over her again. She blew into his mouth, filling his lungs and listened, then repeated before going through the process again.

By the third time she did it she started to become restless, _I'm GETTING NO WHERE! _It's been approximately 6 minutes since he first got knocked out and now she was cutting it close! Rainbow Dash started to tear up again, "WAKE UP SONIC! PLEASE!" she cried out as she pressed on his chest some more but to no avail. Rainbow Dash got up and quickly paced around, tears streaming, her eyes on the sky-

The sky

Clouds

Storms

Lightening

Electricity!

Her eyes flashed with realization as her magenta pools of emotion and sorrow started to refuel with hope. _I can create the necessary clouds_. Rainbow Dash tried to flex her wings but they still pained her greatly, but however feeling better than they did 2 and half minutes ago. She lightly brought herself into the air and flew around gently for a bit to collect water moisture. _If I had my cloud straw this could be better (_the cloud straw is a little made up straw that Rainbow Dash owns that can create clouds by blowing through it. Featured in my other story, Epic Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog).

Rainbow Dash then landed back to the ground and formed a cloud by blowing through her hands like a straw. The cloud then grew larger due to her being a pegasus, she can control the weather, and soon it grew darker.

Rainbow Dash gulped, lightening is **very** dangerous, **very** powerful, and can **kill**. She knew all about lightening and its idiosyncrasies. Without wasting any more time she started pulling tuffs of the grass up with her hands as fast as she could to expose the soft dirt below. Digging as quickly as she could she finally stripped the ground of grass for one Sonic sized dirt bed. She just needs enough volts to jump start his heart, she doesn't need to explode it… so nervously, she slid on top of Sonic with her front on his front, her belly touching his belly, her cheek resting on his as she embraced him… _his cold body_. She looked up to the dark cloud above them and agitated it some more and seconds later she could see a small glow coming from it.

**[Break]**

"It's not working!" Twilight whined in distress, this is the second time Tails has tried to jump start his heart but to no fruition. Tails ignored Twilight's whining and continued to try, he has to try, and he cannot give up.

He looked back to Fluttershy in the car, she looked back at him with trusting eyes, she nodded to him once, and she started to rev the car engine up to 1800 rpm making the alternator put out more juice to the battery. Tails gritted his teeth to try a third time, "Come on… work!" He placed the high voltage pedals on Shadow's chest again and placed it on his chest then retracting the pedals. Shadow's body had jumped harder that time; Tails put his ear down to his chest to listen closely.

He shot a look around him to see everyone looking down at him and Shadow with worry and looks of hopelessness, looks that made Tails grit his teeth in irritation. He looked back to Fluttershy, her look of determination and hope mirrored his. She then revved the engine higher, racing the engine as hard as she could, pushing way past 2500 rpm. Large sparks of electricity jumped from each of the pedals even though they were a good 3 feet apart. Tails then stood over Shadow, "I'm gonna wake you up, even it kills me!" Tails then threw down the intensely electrified pedals down on Shadow's chest.

**/-/ these events are happening parallel of each other /-/**

The cloud glowed brighter and Rainbow Dash clutched Sonic tighter, _please, wake up Sonic… _

The angry, dark cloud then shot a high intensity bolt of lightning at the two. Rainbow Dash screeched with agony as the lightening strike passed through her body like the hottest fire engulfing her whole body. Her body shook and convulsed as the lightening bolt's power was shared between Sonic and herself, and then passing down through the dirt below. Rainbow Dash's eyes began to blur, as the sheer, raw power knocked her out.

As she fell within the depths of blackness her body slowly lost sense to the world around her, the feeling of the burning sensations around her body slowly ebbed away as did the feeling of the warm air between her wings. The ground beneath her disappeared, and so did the feeling of Sonic…

But not before the beating of his heart did.

/-/

The powerful electric shock knocked Tails back up into the air and on top of Fluttershy's car. Smoke began to rise from the battery and the alternator from the extraneous stress placed on it to revive Shadow. Twilight and Pinkie Pie leaned in close to Shadow to see if the shock worked.

Pinkie Pie slowly slid her hand on top of Shadow's chest and to check for pulse.

In silence, her heart lifted, her soul rebalanced, her eyes closed, she could of cried some more, but she was all cried-out. She then smiled and opened her eyes to look at Shadow with those same loving eyes. "Welcome back Shadow."

[**Break**]

Reader, have you ever been in a dark place? A place so devoid of light, like a closet, or maybe you hid under your bed during the night? Have you ever been alone in a house that had its power cut off? If so you would had felt an eerie quietness around you, there would be no humming of electronics, no sounds at all. Now picture yourself in a dark, dark place that had absolutely no sound. Your ears would strain for the slightest vibration in the air; your eyes would dilate to its fullest extent in attempt to perceive the slightest wave of light.

Let's take this a step further; have you ever felt weightless? Like that split second of weightlessness you feel after jumping into on a trampoline at your apex. If not then picture yourself in a dark, silent expanse where no gravity is acting upon you.

Crazy right?

Well this is the exact feeling Sonic and Shadow are feeling right now.

/-/-/-/-/

Sonic awoken with a jolt with darkness flooding every sense, he couldn't feel anything, see anything, hear anything. Sonic's eyes tried it's best to locate some form of light but to no avail and it started to scare him. His mind then replayed the moment the bullet had hit the center of his chest. Sonic started to frantically feel over his body but to his deepest fears he felt nothing. He snapped his head to the left then the right straining to see SOMETHING!

Realization finally set in, Sonic lowered his head in sorrow, _so I did die… I didn't get to say goodbye to any of my friends, and the last thing I saw was Rainbow Dash taking on that monster by herself. How could I leave her to fend for herself like that…? Just what type of friend am I? _

Suddenly he felt something brush against his body, or spirit- the main thing is he finally felt something! Sonic instantly grabbed hold of the _something_ beside him and clutched tightly. He then heard a gruff grunt and the something pulled its arm away from Sonic harshly.

"Hey keep off will yah." Said the voice, Sonic then rolled his eyes.

"Oh great, I'm in purgatory with the killjoy of the year."

"Shut up Faker. I don't wanna be here with you either!"

Looking around Sonic smirked, "Hey can I get a replacement spirit to chill with?"

"Pfft, there isn't anyone else here, idiot." Shadow folded his arms, or whatever.

"Wait how was I able to touch you, I tried touching myself earlier but I didn't feel anything."

"Gross and you touched me too!"

"Not THAT type of touching me." Sonic sweat dropped.

"Sureeeee… But check now, you can hear me right, then that mean our senses are coming back." Shadow unfolded his arms to feel around himself again.

"But why am I here with you?"

"Because, Sonic, we are connected."

"Connected how?"

"By the chaos powers."

"So?"

"God, you're naïve." Shadow shook his head.

A punch was thrown at Shadow's arm. A retorting punch flew back towards Sonic. There was a pause then Sonic threw another punch at Shadow who then quickly replied with another punch to the head.

"What are you doing?" Shadow growled.

"I'm bored man; we gotta past the time somehow."

"By fighting an apparition…" Shadow frowned.

"Yeah since we're both apparitions and whatnot… we can have a ghost fight. The spooooookiest fight ever." Sonic rubbed his nose.

Ignoring Sonic's idiocy Shadow instead answered his previous question. "We are here together because of the chaos powers we posses. See when we left earth; the chaos emeralds were left behind. Since then our power have been diminishing until the only way we could have power is if we shared it. And this morning our power grew very weak, barely enough for the both of us."

Sonic started to nod, rubbing his chin as he did so. "I see what you saying, so all this time we were connected, even on Earth, but we didn't feel the connection because we were always full of the chaotic power. Then coming here started to drain our connection to the emeralds…"

"Bingo, think of our power as a cup of juice-" Shadow started.

"Why juice?" Sonic interrupted, snickering softly.

Shadow punched his arm again. "Think of our power as a cup of juice, when we are within the vicinity of the emeralds, or within the same dimension of the emeralds our power constantly refills overtime. But being in this world our cant refill so once we started to use it all up I guess our chaotic powers started to fuse together, so we shared it the little power we had."

Sonic nodded in understanding.

**(Reader, I hope this explanation isn't too complicated. No? Good, it's about to be.)**

Shadow continued. "I could feel that you were in trouble today Sonic."

"What? Really?"

"Yes, by chaos." Shadow pointed out, "The foreboding threat of something bad happening to you started to affect me too. And before I knew it I felt a terribly hexing pain in my chest- I assumed you were shot, am I right?"

"Yes, it surprised me because I never seen a single firearm in this world before." Sonic was thinking now.

"Indeed, that is interesting, especially since while I was reading in Twilight's library I came across a book about warfare- nothing depicts firearms or cannons in anyway. So I was guessing gunpowder wasn't invented here. All fireworks are magic based, all cannons are magic based- remember Pinkie Pie's party cannon?"

"Yes, and I don't like it." Sonic shivered as he remembered a time when Pinkie Pie shot off the party cannon beside him during a party. Sonic was so scared that he had clung to the ceiling like a cat. Ever since then Sonic was a bit wary of the Party Pony.

Shadow remembered that, he still had a recording on his phone of it. "Yes, that is a type of magic."

"Oh really?" Sonic said.

"Mmhm. So if gunpowder have never been invented then how did they have a gun- you sure it wasn't a magic gun?" Shadow turned towards Sonic.

Sonic nodded, "Yes it was a conventional gun, Rainbow Dash saw it too, she said that she never seen anything like that- something bout weird magic."

"I would think so, since none of the citizens know about it since it most likely hasn't been documented… or… What if someone had purposely erased any depiction of guns from history? Like purposely so no one would remember them!" Shadow realized.

Sonic looked at Shadow curiously, "What are you getting at?"

"Sonic, isn't it peculiar that guns haven't been documented? Not a single book, even books documenting warfare depicts it! And suddenly a gangster shows up and happens to shoot you with one?" Shadow started to piece the evidence together, he started to get more and more excited about it. "Someone didn't want guns to be around anymore, but someone had found out about it! And if that guy was some gang member then I would think that whole gang has guns. Sonic, no one here can possibly defend themselves against guns. All they have are spears, and armor plating is only gonna defend against so much."

Sonic was now looking towards Shadow much seriously now. "I did get put on an odd case today; Celestia told me it was of great importance. The briefing did note that a gang member has been eluding guards for over a month now stealing from important documents. Instead of putting any of the senior officers on the case she picked me, stating that it needed to catch a criminal of great speed so I guess she thought with my speed I could catch him easily. Thing was I didn't know was that this guy was in a gang." _I guess he eluded capture by being speedy like me, why else would Celestia put me on a mission like that. _The name Lightening Wing came to mind. _Lightening huh? Hmm… _

They both paused for a couple of seconds as they thought about it some more.

"We need to explore this further." Shadow spoke up.

"But how can we… we're dead." Sonic spoke sadly.

"Fool we aren't dead! Just healing, cant you tell?" Shadow yelled at him angrily.

"So we're alive!?" Sonic sounded joyous, "Yes! I must have been stronger than I thought!"

"Pfft" Shadow didn't get to retort his full retort before a powerful presence became apparent in front of them. Sonic must have felt it too for he faced forward along with Shadow.

"Who's there?" Shadow called out. To his call a soft green glow slowly became visible within 10 feet in front of them both. The glow was warm and it seemed to fill Sonic and Shadow up with energy. Within a few more seconds a hazy view of a large, green, glowing artifact became apparent.

"The master emerald…" Sonic and Shadow said in unison. At their words a young, beautiful orange echidna with multiple tribal ornaments decorating her stepped out of the darkness and stood patiently in front of the massive emerald.

"Tikal?" Sonic called out, the pretty echidna smiled at them both.

"You gentlemen sure do talk a lot. It sounds as though you both are eager to return to your bodies." She said smiling.

"Yes, we have a mission to accomplish." Shadow clenched his fists.

"Yeah, can we please go back?" Sonic asked, but to his dismay she shook her head.

"I'm sorry, you two haven't healed completely yet it will be some time before you do." The emerald behind her was pulsating like a calm heartbeat. She quickly looked at it then turned back to the two. "It seems as though the master emerald isn't too happy with you both." She frowned.

"Wait, what?" Shadow was confused for a moment. The emerald could perceive feeling as though it has a conscious.

"Yes, it seems as though you have forgotten about the Master Emerald." Tikal fists were now on her hips.

"What, I- I'm sorry?" Sonic said with a goofy grin on his face. _I'm apologizing to a rock…_

She looked to the emerald again this time nodding. "You should be thankful for the Master Emerald, be thankful that you were bestowed this power. You should never forget the master Emerald for it is now always a part of you- so are the chaos emeralds. You can always call upon the Master emerald if you are ever in trouble."

Sonic and Shadow looked to each other then back at Tikal. Sonic then spoke, "I'm sorry Master Emerald, but please, we need to return to our bodies."

"We have a mission to carry out; this is for the greater good. If I am correct, then that gang has bigger plans in their minds regarding the firearms. We need to stop them at all costs." Shadow finished.

Tikal looked absolutely pleased now. "Good, remember my chant, use it to return."

Shadow looked to Sonic and nodded; they both closed their eyes and spoke as a single voice.

"The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power; power is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos!" the both said in perfect harmony. "Send us back to our bodies so we may fight for Justice!"

A warm, heavenly glow enveloped them both in its celestial power. They slowly levitated into the air with the power of chaos fully flowing within them both. They looked at each other with determination deeply written in their eyes. They both have a new mission to set upon; they must take down the gang before any innocent lives are lost to their upcoming deeds. Shadow knew he had to dig deeper to get the evidence needed about the gang and Sonic has a little heart to heart meeting with Princess Celestia for some confirmation.

Below them Tikal was waving to them happily. "Good Luck Sonic and Shadow! May the power of chaos be with you!"

With her final words they dematerialized from the air with a flash of light.

**[End of chapter]**

**Oh my, this was a doozy! Don't worry reader; action will be coming back to the story as you can tell I surely did set it up. ;3 lol **

**I hope you enjoyed reading! **

**Haha Thank you Inkwell Lynx for the review! Your reviews are always fun to read! **

**WELCOME ABOARD GRENINJA32! I sure do hope you enjoy the story! And thank you for the review! **

**LOL sorry that's next chapter Christian Ape99 lol, he will see sonic next chapter, I would do it this chapter but I wanted to have this out today so I could keep this good streak of a chapter a day for you guys! **

**And YESSS I love cars, trucks, and bikes! Thatdudethere789**

**Stay tuned for the next chapter! I hope you enjoy them all! If any of you wonderful folks have a super neat idea about the story to give me some inspiration don't hesitate to comment it in the review section or hit me up with some sexy mail! **

**Killroze. **


	7. Chapter 7

Sonic felt his senses flood through him; the gravity on his body, the smell of pine needles and grass all around him, the feeling of the cool ground beneath his spines, the cool air blowing past his nose, the weight of another body on top of his… _Wait what-! _

Sonic's eyes flew open as he shifted his body to confirm that there was someone on top of him. Sonic sat up holding the person that was on him and looked down. Sonic smiled a small smile of reassurance and gratitude. _She must have been the one to save me… I told you to leave and yet you stayed to help me out. This must mean that Lightening Wing was taken down by her, or that he got away, either way Princess Celestia isn't going to be happy about this one. _Sonic then shimmied himself out from under Rainbow Dash's smaller body and lightly laid her down.

Right when Sonic moved her, her charred top fell off of her, falling to the dirt below. Sonic blushed intensely and he looked away instantly before his eyes could view her breasts. _What the hell? How did that happen?_ _How did she save me anyways? CPR probably…but how did her top just come off like that? _Sonic quickly took off his bloodstained shirt and without looking laid his shirt on top of her torso.

_Good grief… I owe her my life, I probably would have died entirely if I wasn't resuscitated. I guess I'll wait for her to wake up… but first I gotta get this shirt on her…_

/5 minutes later/

Rainbow Dash slowly came back to her senses, a dull pain throbbed through her body as she tried to sit up. She felt as though someone just rubbed icy hot all down her body; on the inside! _Damn that stings… I am never messing with lightening again!_ Her magenta eyes then widened with worry and anxiety, "Sonic!?" she called out without hesitation; she looked around herself quickly but didn't see him there anywhere.

"Yo, right here." Rainbow Dash snapped her head towards Sonic who was standing a few meters away, shirtless, while looking at his phone curiously, it was fried beyond repair. _How did this happen? _Sonic thought to himself then putting his phone back up and faced the cyan pegasus with a smirk. "You took your time to wake up."

Rainbow Dash sprung up from the dirt ignoring the sharp pains she felt across her body and bolted towards Sonic with happiness exuding from her heart. She quickly hugged him but only to hear a sharp inhale from him. She backed off quickly then recognized slightly raised welts on his body that traveled in lightening strike lines that started on his left pectoral, up to his shoulder and going down his side in an interesting fashion, like tattoo. _That must have been from the lightening strike… _Rainbow Dash scoured his body with her worried gaze, all evidence of him being shot was erased except for light scarring on his chest and a small light scar on his arm from when the bullet grazed it.

"I'm sorry…" Rainbow Dash started regarding the welts on his body, she knew just how badly lightening strikes can hurt the body.

"For what, it was an accident; you didn't know I was hurt when you hugged me-" Sonic chuckled.

She chuckled too then scratched her head nervously reminiscent to how Sonic does, "Yeaaaahhh not about that,- to revive you I had to use a lightning bolt to jolt your heart back to life…" she said still not recognizing that she didn't have her original top on anymore.

Sonic look pensively at her for a second. _Again she risked her life to save me. No wonder she was knocked out on top of me… to share the lightening bolt's power so it wouldn't completely fry me. Wow, that's one tough chick! Did fry my phone though… _

"So that's what happened to your shirt…" he mumbled, but she heard as she looked down and realized she was wearing his bloodied red buttoned up shirt now, the top buttons fastened so her breasts wouldn't show. She then started to blush and she looked to Sonic with wide eyes embarrassed eyes.

Sonic then got the gist of what she was probably thinking so he quickly put his hands up in a defensive gesture; the last thing he wanted Rainbow Dash to think is that he was a pervert! "I didn't look! I swear!" Sonic looked away and down at the ground. "But I do appreciate you saving my life, even though I told you to leave you stayed even though you could have lost your life as well…" his eyes returned slowly up to Rainbow Dash, she was staring at him with a slight blush on her face. "Why?"

_Because I love you dodo! Can't you see that? _She shook her head then scowled at him, "What? You wanted me to leave you alone to fight after you got hit by something in your chest- bleeding everywhere? Are you insane? I am your friend!" She spat at him, coming closer to him as she ranted. "I will never, and I mean NEVER leave you alone to fight if I can help!" while she yelled at him she was waving her hands around dramatically.

Her attitude then changed dramatically as she crossed her skinny arms, "I can never leave you alone to fight for yourself, we're in this together…" her voice softened, growing slightly more romantic, she then shook her head then frowned at him again, "Because we are friends! And I can never leave a friend when they're in trouble! I am the element of loyalty after all!" she put her hands on her hips and looked at Sonic. And Sonic looked at her.

After about ten seconds of staring Sonic spoke up, "The element of loyalty? What's that?"

[Break]

Shadow could hear voices coming to him, although they were still fuzzy to him as he started to regain consciousness. Soon he could decipher Pinkie Pie's voice that seemed fairly close to him. Then he could decipher Twilight's anxious voice then Fluttershy and Tails; the latter of them sounding overly triumphant. Then he could head Knuckles booming voice in a commanding tone.

Shadow's lips then formed a grimace as his head slowly shook back and forth. _Goddamn why is everyone so freaking loud?! _

He could hear Pinkie's voice again this time telling her friends to be quiet, fortunately they all hushed and Shadow's grimace lessened a bit. His amber eyes snapped open and he yanked his head up, gasping slightly. _Alright Master Emerald, you gave us another chance to live. I will make sure it would not be in vain. _He looked around him to see his friends looking at him with a reassured expressions, Pinkie pie wore the largest expression of reassurance and happiness for Shadow's recovery. Twilight held her hand to her heart and closed her eyes as if she was uttering a small prayer for Shadow's life. The rest of his friends looked on with smiles.

"Glad to see you back grumpy pants." Pinkie Pie said smiling at him, Shadow smirked at her before it went away seeing Tails about to explode with triumph.

Tails fist trembled, he then punched it towards the air, and then with extreme exuberance shouted "YEAAAH BITCH!" beside him Fluttershy jumped slightly to his exclamation while he looked at Shadow, "I knew that would work! Applejack and Rarity didn't think I could do it but, YEAH!"

Rarity frowned, "It was because none of us would have thought that outlandish foolery with that car would work and we would just be wasting time!"

Shadow's eyes narrowed, looking bemused, "A car?"

Tails stepped out of the way of the smoking Prius C behind him, "Yeah, I used the car as an defibrillator to shock you to life!" Shadow was to say the least very impressed but he didn't show it. His eyes instead looked to the ground noticing the two blackened metal pedals that were hooked up to the battery by a jumper cable. He saw how the engine compartment of the car was smoking due to the battery.

"Looks like you also destroyed her car as well Tails…" Shadow murmured.

"I- Oh…" Tails felt incredibly nervous and ashamed as he turned to Fluttershy, "I'm sorry Fluttershy, and I can fix it for you tonight." He scratched behind his head in embarrassment.

Fluttershy smiled at him with an understanding expression. "Why don't we do it together?" She suggested looking into his eyes. Tails felt his heart jump from her expression and started to blush nervously.

A smile of relief spread across Tails' muzzle, "I would love that." He replied back, his smile and the way he replied sent Fluttershy's heart into somersaults straight to heaven.

Shadow watched Fluttershy's and Tails' interaction silently just now noticing their closeness. _Fluttertails? I was almost sure Twilight had a thing for him… I wonder how long this has been going on… _Pinkie then stepped in front of him, bending down with a hand outstretched. "Can you stand?" Shadow then put his eyes on Pinkie's and noticed the same gleam that shone in Fluttershy's eyes regarding Tails was shining in Pinkie's. Shadow pulled back his head, distancing himself from her, but nodded and stood up himself ignoring her waiting hand.

"Tails, do you know where Sonic is?" Shadow looked past Pinkie to the vulpine who was closing the hood of the Prius C.

Tails looked at him for a second then growing worried, "No, ha-have you- I mean can you feel him?" Tails asked worried for the wellbeing of his brother.

Shadow shook his head, all of their friends that were paying attention to Shadow and Tails' conversation felt sorrow hit them again, but Shadow wasn't finished. "I can't feel him because our bodies are healed and once again refueled with chaos energy. I don't feel the tether that bounded us earlier." Shadow finished. Their friends felt a wave of relief, a bigger wave of relief came from Tails though, and he had turned his back to back to everyone to hide his emotions.

After a few seconds Tails spoke. "Thanks Shadow, I really needed to hear that." Shadow can hear the emotion flooding his voice and nodded at him respectfully.

Tails then turned around, "Alright let's find Sonic!" he shouted out courageously. All his friends looked at him with big smiles and cheered with him.

"Yeah let's find that blue blur!" Twilight coaxed cheerfully.

"He can't be too far away! Let's track him down!" Applejack said next.

"Hey I think I can see him!" Fluttershy said as she leaned forward slightly and squinted her eyes to get a closer look, "And Rainbow Dash…"

Once the two figures came closer everyone realized it was Rainbow Dash and Sonic. Tails looked absolutely relieved when he saw his brother, the vulpine bit his bottom lip to keep a straight face but in actuality he could feel his lip threatening to quiver. Fluttershy beside him noticed how he was feeling and felt the urge to hold his hand that was hanging loosely to the side. Slowly her fingers got closer but before she could grasp his the fox suddenly burst forward, rushing towards his friend.

Sonic noticed his brother running over to him and let go of Rainbow Dash's supporting shoulder and rushed towards his buddy, having a slight limp from the electrocution his body took earlier.

"Sonic!" Tails cried out as they both embraced each other in a brotherly fashion, Sonic could feel his brother's pain, he did die after all. It must have been absolutely heartbreaking to find out that the person you looked up to for just about all your life has suddenly fell to death's cold embrace especially when that person that you cared for is nowhere to be seen. Sonic hugged his brother back and Tails let out the emotion finally freeing it from his constant suppression to save face. "I thought we were truly going to lose you." Tails said, his words saturated in a melting pot of emotions.

"Yeah buddy me too, I'm sorry- I should have been more careful." Sonic said closing his eyes, hearing the pain in his voice that was usually cheery and happy hurt him inside too. The two embraced each other in silence for about ten more seconds before Tails replied.

"Damn right you should've." Tails choked out starting to chuckle. Sonic chuckled with him and finally let go of his bro. Tails quickly wiped his eyes and flashed a glance at all their friends around them. Tails blushed at the ladies' reactions; they were covering their mouths or crossing their hands over their hearts as they watched the tear jerking, heartfelt episode before them. Fluttershy was crying silently and held a big smile as she watched the reunion of the two brothers.

Tails slightly blushed and looked back up to Sonic, "So what happened anyways? How did you get hurt?" Tails asked his expression getting serious.

Sonic copied his demeanor and looked over to Shadow; Shadow gave him a wise look and folded his arms. Sonic then quickly looked around at his friends that were all equally as curious to find out what had happen. "Let's find someplace more private to talk about it." His expression serious, he looked back to Tails, "Things are about to get serious."


	8. Chapter 8

"A gun?" the Mane-six asked together in unison, their eyes full with confusion at the unknown word.

Sonic and company along with the Mane-Six gathered together at Twilight's house to talk privately about the new problem at hand. Amy sat protectively next to Sonic holding him closely still utterly shocked and scared at the dire news she had gotten when Tails phoned her about everything that had happened when she were at work. Rainbow Dash sat on the other end of Sonic feeling somewhat awkward and passive aggressive towards Sonic since he allowed Amy to be so close. Tails and Shadow were standing next to a coffee table in the middle of the room with their arms folded as they were trying to explain to everyone what was going on. Twilight sat in her armchair adjacent to the couch Sonic, Amy, and Rainbow Dash were sitting on. She sat comfortably with one of her feet under her body as she watched Shadow and Tails both with equal interest. Knuckles stood against the wall with Applejack beside him, both of them thinking about what a gun in Equestria means. Finally, Rarity and Pinkie Pie sat silently to listen to the meeting and Fluttershy sat on the floor in front of where Rainbow Dash was sitting.

Finally when everyone hunkered down and got silent Sonic put his eyes on Shadow and nodded, "Show 'em." He said then looking around at the girls.

Shadow nodded and walked to the end of the room where his motorcycle bag was sitting and brought it back over and dumping its contents onto the hardy, wood table. From the iron studded leather bag a Desert Eagle, a Beretta M9, and a shotgun pistol, the Taurus Judge, slid out onto the table. The three large handguns fell with a heavy thuds and the Judge slowly rotated and pointed towards Twilight, its gleaming gunmetal glinting in her ignorant eyes.

The ladies peered at the weapons in piquing curiosity except for Rainbow Dash who today, mere hours prior, found out first hand what these machines were. The rainbow haired pegasus gulped in fear, her eyes dilated, her heart beat ran, and she started to breathe faster as the raven-black Beretta faced her; the pitch black barrel staring dead at her eyes. Sonic did a double-take at Rainbow Dash noticing the obvious apprehension in her magenta eyes. He patted her knee gently and gave her an assuring smile and then looked back to the ladies around them.

"These are guns. Guns, in this case handguns, are highly powerful weapons (in the right hands) that uses gunpowder as propulsion to propel a missile which is, in this case, the bullet." Shadow pulled out a simple 9mm bullet from his pocket to show everyone. The gleaming brass sparkled in the sunlit room. "These guns, in skilled hands- or lucky ones" Shadow added the latter with a mutter, "Have the capabilities to kill with one shot-" Shadow picked up Beretta and unloaded it, its magazine (clip) falling into his left hand with a mechanical clack. "-And this one holds 15." He ended grimly.

He looked to the ladies around him who all gave Shadow a fearful look. Shadow then pulled back the slide of the handgun, ejecting the round in the barrel, and then catching the bullet in his off hand before passing Twilight the gun to pass around.

Instantly Twilight's hands fell as she picked up the surprisingly heavy gun. "It's not as light as it looks…" she muttered observantly. She then looked to Shadow to Sonic nervously. "Y-you said it could kill in one shot…" she took her eyes off of Shadow and put them on Sonic, "And you got hit by it four times…" Twilight said in awe, her eyes stretching as she realized that she was holding a seriously deadly device. She then pushed it out of her hands abruptly, letting it fall to the floor with a metallic clack.

"I need to tell Princess Celestia about this right now!" she stood up quickly, but Tails stopped her in her tracks. He had his hand out desperately, afraid that she may materialize her magical parchment and quill any second now. The fox looked to his left to see Shadow staring down at his handgun that Twilight so rudely discarded. Tails swallowed a lump in his throat but then returned his attention to Twilight.

Tails' eyes ceased her movement with its uncharacteristic seriousness, "No. You can't tell anyone about this. Do you understand? This is serious."

"Then why not tell Princess Celestia!? She would unquestionably know exactly what to do regarding these weapons, and this problem!" Twilight yelled at him, her eyes darted from Shadow to the weapon that now lies on the ground. Its stillness; it's silent, cold metal shape sent shivers up her spine. This weapon can kill a single person in one shot- it almost permanently killed Sonic and Shadow, albeit the last one was inadvertently the cause of their chaos powers fusing. Regardless Shadow knows just how powerful these weapons are and he doesn't want to inform Princess Celestia about it?

She felt torn between trusting Shadow and Tails and refraining from telling the princess about it. She is suppose to commit to her duty as Princess, utmostly, and tell her teacher, Princess Celestia, about any matters regarding the safety of the citizens of Ponyville and surrounding areas.

Shadow finally took his eyes off of the gun on the floor and glared dead into her eyes, his crimson eyes seemingly burning a hole through Twilight's purple eyes, and then glaring into her soul. "Because Sonic and I have a serious suspicious feeling that she has something to do with why no one, including you lot, knows about guns." Twilight stared at him for a long while as she processed what he said. After those words left Shadow's lips everything got quiet.

The Mane-Six all looked at Shadow and Sonic in utter disbelief and shock. "Woah, woah, woah, hold your horses; are you telling me that you believe that our princess has a foot in this?" Applejack stood up and accused, she looked at Shadow as if he just insulted her granny.

Even Pinkie Pie was looking at Shadow in a confused look of horror. She looked nervously around at the maddening faces of her friends then back at Shadow. "What do you mean Shadow...?" she uttered out.

Sonic felt the tension in the room rising like the inside of a volcano so he stood up from his seat quickly, ignoring the sting of the tree shaped welt the lightning gave him, and about to stand with Shadow to clarify, but Twilight got to him first.

She jumped up and stared deep into Shadow's face, anger written plain as day on her comely face. Her wings erected slightly and her fists clenched. "Do you mean to tell me that you think that _my _teacher, _OUR _Princess, has something to do with these- these obscene weapons of murder?!" Twilight spat at Shadow, the ebony hedgehog was not fazed and did not move an inch as she screamed in his face, in fact his frown only deepened into a scowl of aggravation.

"Yeah, you tell 'em Twi!" Rainbow Dash cheered on Twilight, the rowdy, inertly loyal pegasus was especially offended that Shadow had the audacity to say something like that. Sonic flashed a look of discontent at Rainbow Dash, but the pegasus turned her head from his gaze and folded her arms. Her passive aggression never left her mind.

"Princess Celestia would **NEVER **associate herself, in any way with these vile, tools! She is pure, honest, indomitable, and indiscriminately benevolent! She is someone that would never deceive anyone- thinking that she has something to do with this disgraceful malarky- why I ought to send you to the moon!" Twilight ranted on and on, her mane was close to combusting at this very moment. Her mind smoldered in anger and her mind became shrouded in animosity. Something in her told her to stop, but as her friends egged her on, and with the fact that Shadow coolly insulted her teacher and role model she kept the rant coming.

"She is of **truest **character and for you to even **THINK **that she would have even the slightest involvement in those heinous tools of death then you," she pointed at Shadow's chest with force, "And you," she then directed her castigating finger at Sonic angrily, "Must have lost more than a few brain cells when you both were lying around fucking dying!" she screamed at the hedgehogs. The rest of the Mane-Six rallied their best friend for her valiant words and cheered her on. Sonic and Company, excluding Shadow, looked around nervously then back at Shadow to see how he would react by being screamed at by someone undoubtedly inferior to him.

Shadow's eyes were cold as the winter and as sharp as the winter's chill. He looked as though he was staring down her very soul. His fists were clenched as he contained every screaming voice in him that told him to smack a bitch. "Sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up. If you ever lose your damn mind and talk like that in my face again I will remove your fucking tongue." His voice was deep as the damndest pits of Tartarus and sounded like he crawled from there himself! The pissed off ebony hedgehog then flashed an infuriated scowl around at each of the Mane-Six in turn. "Do you hear me! Sit down! Shut up!" Shadow barked viciously at each one of the Mane-Six, including Pinkie Pie, and they all cowardly ducked from his enraged eyes and fearfully complied with Shadow's orders. Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles looked at Shadow with a surprised expression, they obviously didn't see that broiling, bombast retort coming.

Shadow scowled at everyone in the room save for Sonic company and then returned his eyes on Twilight who was now looking up at him with her hands braced on the armrests of the chair. Honestly, with as much raw ferocity that came from his mouth, she almost feared that he was going to attack her. "Now pick up my Goddamn gun off that dirty floor before you join it." Twilight hesitated for a second which only infuriated the ebony hedgehog even more. "Now!" he growled to which Twilight friskily picked up the heavy gun and held it in her hands.

Looking as if it were the right time to intervene and possibly lessen the hate in the room, Sonic put a hand on his doppelganger's shoulder and gave him a look saying that 'now may be the time to let me take over for a minute'. Shadow fell back and leaned against a nearby wall as Sonic took the center of the room.

Sonic cleared his throat and scratched between his quills before starting, "Sounds like Shadow needs a Snickers bar huh? Heh, ladies, we don't mean to frighten you, well at least _I _don't," Sonic smirked and looked behind his shoulder to peer at Shadow, who in turn gave Sonic the middle finger. _Niiiice._

Sonic then turned back to the Mane-Six. "Yes, it is true that guns are very powerful, but do not fear it- fear the one who wields it. Right now none of you should fear this gun for you all trust each other right? Rainbow Dash, you're not scared that Twilight will shoot you, right? Fluttershy, you don't fear that Rarity would possibly like to end it all and off you if she gets that gun, right?" The two ladies shook their heads and Sonic nodded in satisfaction. " Notice that these other two guns on the table haven't gotten up to take you lovely ladies out- notice that the guns are only as dangerous as that who wields it."

"As you all pass it around take note that if you are willing to join Shadow and I on our mission then you'll see a lot more of these of every variety." Sonic said calmly and smoothly, his voice suave to the clearly agitated Mane-Six's ears.

Rainbow Dash is now holding the Beretta. She held it gingerly and stared down on it, it was larger than both of her hands- larger than she would had expected. Slowly, she configured her finger and hand position held it the same way she saw Lightening Wing holding it at Sonic. Suddenly within her mind she revisited the mind-shattering memory watching Sonic fall as the crimson blood spurted from his back and chest. Like a slideshow the images of Sonic falling into dust and blood made her heartbeat quicken, but not in fear, rather in sheer animosity. _If I ever see that man again, that man that shot Sonic… I swear… I will kill him._

"Rainbow Dash…"

_I will kill him… I will kill him for hurting Sonic… _the visions of the man cackling after he had shot Sonic pissed her off even more- her eyes dilated as she recalled the way her heart lurched as she heard the splashing sound of thick blood falling onto the dusty ground.

"Rainbow Dash…!"

_Lightning__ Wing__…__I swear it__… I will not have mercy on you a second time…_

"Rainbow Dash!"

**Click**

Rainbow Dash jumped out of her trancelike state when the gun clicked, she didn't even realize her finger was on the trigger.

"Rainbow Dash…? Are you okay?" Sonic asked, he was now in front of her with his hand on her shoulder, his eyes are her eye level and looking into hers with worry.

"I-uh, I, I'm fine." She reluctantly tore her gaze from his affable orbs of green and passed the gun to Rarity.

Shadow rose off the wall, walked back beside Tails to start speaking again. Sonic let go of Rainbow Dash to join him. "Like I was saying before," his eyes flashed briefly on Twilight, she didn't look back to him, "Sonic and I think Princess Celestia may have something to do with guns and is the sole reason why no one knows about them." He said looking around, everyone eyes were on him now besides Twilight, the alicorn kept her eyes casted onto her feet.

"I have read up extensively on your history about how Equestria and how it came to be. I read the earliest depictions of this land up to the most recent history and never have I once came across the mentioning of a gun, or even gunpowder for that matter. That doesn't sound too weird until what happened earlier today- Sonic being attacked by a random thug with a gun." Shadow continued to explain to the ladies.

The Mane-Six looked at him curiously and soaked up his words as they too thought about it, they never heard of a guns or gunpowder ever in their lives.

"I've read that about a 1,001 years ago, Equestria was in a nationwide civil war. There were many, many casualties and the war had decreased the nation's population down by a little over 53 percent. Princess Celestia rose up to reign as ruler ended all the torment and destruction, after years, and years of fighting there was finally peace amongst the races of your kind." Shadow said next. "I have a feeling that firearms had a big play in why there were so many deaths- of course Celestia knew the incredibly destructive power guns possessed in the wrong hands and sought a way to eradicate all mentioning and evidence that guns existed on this world. I'm sure she did this to make sure a blood bath that was the Equestria Civil War would never come to be again." Shadow continued.

"So that means that you were never saying that Princess Celestia had a direct hand in firearms… just that she had a abolish association with them." Twilight muttered to herself though everyone heard it. She held her head even lower in shame and shook her head.

"Then how did that ruffian end up with one and ended up shooting Sonic?" Rarity asked, finding a flaw in what he just said.

"Yeah, you just said that Princess Celestia eradicated all the evidence of guns from history- how did that gangster find one?" Applejack commented.

Shadow looked to the two then smirked, "Yeah, which does sound strange, but it is fitting to have some sort of record on every weapon in a nation's history somewhere in the castle. Plus Celestia will not live forever- she has an heir, and that heir will have to know these things as well as to also prevent something like the Equestria Civil War from happening again." Shadow stared dead at Twilight, the princess before him slowly looked up to him. "I have a feeling that Celestia kept some sort of record about guns to one day tell you about it when she does step down- or die." Twilight looked at him, ignoring his latter statement, but understood what he was trying to say.

Everyone nodded their heads in understanding of what Shadow was saying.

"So if that gangster had one, which could only mean that the whole gang must have discovered the document, built their own guns, and distributed them throughout their rinky-dink operation." Twilight said her eyes still on Shadow's, her eyes cascaded down towards the two still weapons on the coffee table, noting their potential devastation. "This is serious…"

Shadow nodded then put his eyes on everyone else. "That is why Sonic and I are going to go in and see what we can find out."

"Yeap! But we need help… We can't do this alone." Sonic said, looking around at his friends with a comforting smile. "I need my friends to join us and help prevent chaos from ensuing."

"Tails?" Sonic suggested as he looked at his brother.

Tails gave him a smile, "As if you need to ask Sonic." They both fist bumped and nod at each other with a smirk.

"And of course you're gonna need the muscle!" Knuckles said coming up behind Sonic and Tails putting a hand on their shoulders.

Sonic chuckled, "Alright we got the dream team!"

"If my Sonics' going then so am I!" Amy proclaimed with happiness. She jumped off the couch leaving Rainbow Dash to look at her in slight shock… she was just about to proclaim something like that but now since she said it, she felt that it would be awkward to say it directly after she did. Sonic and Amy gave each other a high five and Sonic put an arm around Amy's shoulders and smiled.

Pinkie Pie jumped up and joined Shadow's side. "If you're gonna go fight some baddies then you know I'm coming with!" Pinkie Pie said throwing a few punches in the air. Shadow smirked at her and gave her a short, curt nod.

"Welp, guess I can't let knucklehead go and get himself killed." Applejack said as she walked up beside her beau and giving him a hard punch to the arm which he of course barely felt, he pulled the country gal closer to him and threw up a fist in the air. "Alright!"

Sonic looked to his cyan savior, "Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow Dash looked at him, although still feeling passive aggressive towards him she stood up from the couch and walked over to him, "Pfft, of course I'm coming, I can't let you go in and die now can I?" Sonic chuckled and put thumbs up at her.

Tails looked at Fluttershy but before he could ask for her company she was already heading towards him. "I will follow you into Tartarus if you asked me to." She said sincerely looking into his eyes.

Twilight watched Fluttershy's and Pinkie Pie's interactions with Tails and Shadow and felt somewhat like they were treading on _her_ territory. She folded her arms and arose from her seat. "I suppose I have no choice, we can't exactly let those hooligans start another war now can we?" she stated, shooting a sour look at Pinkie Pie as she stood in front of Shadow, her eyes then rose back to Shadow's "What do you want me to do?"

In Twilights pocket was a magical parchment that was blank and ready to be written on.


End file.
